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Don't have closer up photos as I just bought it but wanted to share it. By what I could tell everything looked good but curious what others think. Location states from Panzhou City, Guizhou Province. I’ll definitely add more photos when the fossil arrives!

Sometime ago, I acquired an ichthyosaur skull that was poorly prepped. It had been roughly grinded and had lost much of its surface details. This is unlike the Holzmaden-style ichthyosaurs that were professionally prepped from the beginning, resulting in a beautiful fossil with scleral eye rings and full teeth etc. It's the reason collectors get unprepped Keichousaurus and send them to professional preppers, with the resultant Keichousaurus being more detailed than the ones you see from the Chinese market. This guy here is as flat as a pancake and so it would take delicate work to remove the hard matrix without damaging what bones still remain. Thankfully, @steelhead9 was up to the task of prepping him further. There is no restoration here. I'd say he has done one heck of a job.

Hello, Saw this for sale, wondering if it is legit? Found in Guixhou, part of an old collection from the 60s. Matrix is 12 inch x 6.6 inch x 2.2 inch. Desriptions says no restorations but it has been glued. Thanks for the help

hey guys. ok... so the recent crash deleted my huge write up and everything everyone said in the thread. oh well, i guess ill just have to start out from scratch again! alright, so here is a complete mixosaurid ichthyosaur Mixosaurus panxianensis from the eastern border of Yunnan province, China. many mixosaurid ichthyosaurs have been discovered in the neighboring province, Guizhou. a site where this ichthyosaur wasn't found in is called Panxian, albeit it is 300 km away to the east from where this guy was discovered. i'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but there is an interesting relationship going on with the jugal and the quadratojugal of this mixosaur. they lack external contact. I previously thought that this mixosaur was a Barracudasaurus maotaiensis, redescribed from Mixosaurus maotaiensis, but the mandible was a lot more broad than the mandibles seen in those of B. maotianensis. the eye sockets are oval and large, but not as big as barracudasaurs. i think you can also see the scapula in the right fore fin photo, but the coracoid is missing. it is very probable that the two unidentified bones beside the radius are broken pieces of the coracoid. the coracoid is not completely seen on the surface, as some broken pieces might still be buried in the matrix. although part of the tail vertebrae has been touched up, it is obvious that the remaining fossil mixosaur is authentic. rare in china's case! the mixosaur has been polished, excluding the main body. polished bones could be seen as paint like streaks. the mixosaur is 1.2 meters long. with the matrix and the holder, it would be around 1.5 meters. it takes up a lot of space to tell the truth enjoy!