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What Mosasaur is this and is it composite?


heZZ

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Scale?  

 

More detailed images are needed to determine what is real, cast, or carved.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Is it a composite? Likely not. Has it had reconstruction work done? Absolutely.

 

The big red flag I see is that these images of this particular specimen, listed as Halisaurus arambourgi, shows up on at least a half a dozen different, unrelated sites between at least that many vendors around the world.

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Halisaurus arambourgi skull. But yeah, there are a number of parts that look a bit rough. Likely an incomplete skull that was then repaired.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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I agree with @LordTrilobite and @LabRatKing, this is definitely Halisaurus arambourgi, one of the smaller - if not the smallest - of the Moroccan mosasaurs. The overall size, shape of the teeth, thin dentaries and shape of quadrates give it way as being as much. It's real, but has quite a bit of poor repairs done on it. The frontal, for one, has a bit of a bend (which is not uncommon in such skulls offered on the market, but is actually plastic deformation that resulted from taphonomic processes), giving the overall skull more of a square appearance, rather than the elongated one that it should have. Moreover, all the "bridge bones", such as - but not limited to - the squamosal, jugal, parietal extensions, etc. have been reconstructed very robustly and without curvature. That is, as @LordTrilobite said, they "look a bit rough" - adding to the overall square look of the specimen.

 

TextFig-83_PosteriorSkull.jpgTextFig-32_ClidastesTemporal.jpgFigures taken from Mike Everhart's "If I only had a brain....": A primer on the brain and cranial anatomy of mosasaurs

 

From what I can make out, this piece is targetted at the less scientifically interested buyer who would like to liven up their home with an unique discussion item.

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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