heZZ Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thecosmilia Trichitoma Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Your piece is Composite. The teeth are real, but the rest is just carved bone glued together. Real complete Prognathodon skulls are rare. 2 It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt -Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heZZ Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 (edited) Okay, thanks for the answer Edited January 27, 2020 by heZZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pemphix Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Yes, the teeth are original. I would stay away from this. Bad composite.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Most large vertebrate fossils are rare. A good complete skull of a Prognathodon would be rare yes. But among the Morocco mosasaurs, Prognathodon and Halisaurus seem to be among the more common genera. Stay away from this skull though. As the others have said, it's a composite. But it's not all carved bone and real teeth. At least a significant part of this skull is made up of real mosasaur skull bones. Most notably the left maxilla and premaxilla are real, though it a bit of a rough state. I'm also seeing some likely real parts on the braincase and the lower jaw. As composites go, this is slightly above the absolute worst as this still vaguely resembles the correct anatomy. The main issue with the reconstruction is the complete lack of the quadrate bones. The teeth, while real, are very mismatched. They have different sizes and colours. They don't seem to match each other at all. I think it's most likely that this is originally a partial skull that was then badly reconstructed with extra teeth, skull bones and random bone to fill in the gaps. 6 Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 The teeth are too regularly spaced and too regularly angled to be natural. Why are teeth on the other side of the skull visible through the eye socket? It is a composite that seems to have a different number of teeth on each side. Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 23 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said: Why are teeth on the other side of the skull visible through the eye socket? That's actually one thing this composite has mostly correct. Mosasaurs do have an extra set of teeth in their mouth. These are the pterygoid teeth. Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScienceGirl Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 On 1/27/2020 at 8:25 AM, heZZ said: It is composite but pretty nice piece! I would love to have one of those!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flx Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Hm... one of the fascinating things (to me at least) about prognatodon skulls is that the lower jaw has a "jaw--joint" This feature is missing here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now