Barasaurus besairiei from Madagascar

[Crazyhen]

Is this specimen a Barasaurus besairiei from Madagascar?  Is it genuine?  I have seen quite a number of these specimens imported from Madagascar to China but most of them were headless.  But more recently, most of the imported specimens are rather complete with head.  They are mostly in the form of split nodules, and so it seems like they are genuine.  Any views?

[Ludwigia]

It's quite obvious to me, although I'm by no means familiar with this fauna, that there is a lot of paint work involved here. Normally by split concretions, the parts which are missing on the one side are to be seen on the other and vice versa. But here you get the impression that all the bones split exactly in half all the way down, which is practically impossible.

[Crazyhen]

Thanks @Ludwigia, yes indeed there seem to be a lot of paint work.  But it is an genuine specimen, right?  I found it interesting that most of the specimens imported in the last year or two are headless but more recently almost all imported specimens have heads. 

[Ludwigia]

Like they say, 2 heads are better than 1

[Pemphix]

22 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

 But here you get the impression that all the bones split exactly in half all the way down, which is practically impossible.

I need to disagree, it is not sooo unusual, typical example is the Messel-Pit. And it is usually by far way not exact in the half, just seems like that...

Imho no obvious red flags on this piece judging by the photos, except some (but not much) painting on the parts where are only impressions of the bones left.

Concerning the head: do not know.

 

 

[Natalie81]

I agree with Pemphix, not unusual.

 

Often they just have the imprint of the fossil, not always the bones