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I just went to this traveling exhibit in a museum in a city where my brother lives that it is about the animals and life in the Permian period and I got pictures of 3 fossils, an ammonite, a trilobite and a crinoid but I don’t know what species and genus they are?

Would anyone happen to have contact info for anyone in the fossil field at the Smithsonian/Museum of Natural History? Actually, any museum, or "official"(?) expert of the field--Prehistoric whales/Cetus. Ive tried contacting anyone from the smithsonian website contact form, and through email, but haven't had any luck yet. I know they would be very busy, but as my attempts have only gone to the most general direction, I'm thinking that if the messages even end up getting to the correct people at all, they may not even get the messages for some time.

Here I have 3 teeth from Moracco. One is 100% Natural. One has had restoration to the root. The 3rd broke, probably during extraction, and was glued back together. The first tooth is an Otodus, I bought back in the early to mid 2000's at a fossil and mineral show. One dealer had a bunch of these teeth in a box. At the time I had just gotten into collecting sharkteeth and didn't have much experience with restorations. I suspected that there may have been some work done, but at $5 a piece I figured it was not a big deal. So I bought a few for myself and my kids. If you look at the root you can see it is two tone color. The grey portion is the real part of the root the tan/white potion is were they took matrix and glue to make a mortar which was used to fill in missing or imperfect areas. This past summer I was at my club's show, and picked up tooth #2. Again an Otodus from Moracco. But this is a Beautiful all natural tooth that I picked up for $10. Look at the difference in the roots of both teeth. The 3rd tooth is a Paleocarcharadon also from Moracco. This tooth broke through the root in two places, where the cusps meet the blade on both sides. The breaks look very clean and fit back in place pretty well. To the naked eye they simply look like cracks. But upon viewing under magnification you can see the use of glue and a tiny bit of matrix used the hide the breaks somewhat. I don't know if anyone will be able to see that from my pics but I wanted to at least show what I could. None of these teeth were expensive so really don't bother me. But these are things to look for when considering purchasing more pricey fossil teeth.

I bought this ammonite at a gem show the other day. It is about 2.5" across. I know it is real, but am curious about how "natural" it is- has it been excessively polished, cut, or otherwise altered? I know most Madagascar ammonites are altered in some way.

Hi TFF Last year I spent a hole afternoon with one of the curators of the Natural History Museum London. I had a behind the scenes look at the Museum's fascinating zoology collection preserved in spirit. We explore some of the Darwin Centre’s 27 kilometres of shelves,encounter numerous treasures hidden among the 22 million animal specimens housed here. with the highlight been a 8.62-metre-long giant squid court in the Falklands Islands and a very good look at some of the specimens collected by Charles Darwin himself . I did get to hold Darwin's now pickled pet octopus , First 3 photos are the Giant Squid 3,4,5 specimens specimens by Darwin the rest is assorted pickles jars thank you all for looking cheers Bobby

I would truly appreciate any response to my question. I recently purchased these 2 ammonite fossils but I suspect they are fakes. Can anyone help?

I found this in online,the headline said it a dinosaur bone,its really look gem like and smoth surface...may it be a real dinosaur bone???

I looks real, but you can't start a camp fire with this. The species is unknown, but I like to imagine perfect pigmentary replacement.