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Moroccan Crocodile Fossil?


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Hello!

I recently saw this crocodile skull fossil at a rock shop. I understand that there are many fake croc fossils from Morocco, but I'm having trouble identifying this one. I don't see any obvious signs that are present with bad fakes, but I'm a real novice at fossil identification. Are there any red flags I'm missing?

For reference, the skull is approximately 11" x 4".

20200612_152452.jpg

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4 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Complete fake.  Made up of lots bone fragments

Ah gotcha. Do they use fragments from modern croc skulls and piece them together with the matrix? Or just bone fragments from anything they can find?

 

Thank you!!

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Morocco is notorious for fakes. No chance this a “completed” skull piece.

 

As @Troodon said, it’s likely a composite.

 

Nevertheless, it’s cool looking and one you might add to the collection…if you don’t overpay.

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I don't completely agree.
 

This does not look as bad as some of the composite fakes we often see that are literally made up of random bones that are often ground down to make the shape fit. This piece looks like it's mostly made up of the correct skull pieces with some parts that look a bit iffy. So I wouldn't call this fake. BUT, it does indeed look like it has been tampered with.

I think this might have originally been a partial skull that might have been partially disarticulated. I think it was then prepped out and reassembled, with extra bone fragments added to fill in the blanks. Or it could be that this is all original and just badly reconstructed from loosely associated skull parts.

 

If you want to know what to look for... The biggest red flags on this one is actually the matrix itself. It looks very homogenous. Like sand mixed with glue to stabilise the skull. This is typical for when people are trying to hide their prepping crimes. It tells us that how we see it now probably wasn't it's original position in the matrix. Meaning, at least some reconstruction. The skull itself also has gaps between some bone parts with the same sandy matrix look. Which suggests that those gaps were filled in afterwards and that those bone pieces might not belong together.

 

It doesn't look good. But it doesn't look horrible either.

It's just pretty bad.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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