Short faced bear or something else?

[Hayley]

Can someone please help me with an ID on this? I was almost positive it’s a short faced bear, but the person who found it thinks tiger. It was found in Indonesia. It weighs 5 kilos.

[Misha]

This is definitely neither of those, carnivoran skulls in general do not look like this at all.

Are you sure that this piece was even found? I cannot think of any animals with a skull that would be even remotely similar, I would assume that this is a fake.

[Hayley]

6 minutes ago, Misha said:

This is definitely neither of those, carnivoran skulls in general do not look like this at all.

Are you sure that this piece was even found? I cannot think of any animals with a skull that would be even remotely similar, I would assume that this is a fake.

Just curious as to why you think this is fake? What do carnivore skulls typically look like that has this one throwing you off? I’m just trying to understand.

[ParkerPaleo]

 

Here is a short faced bear skull.  Note the eye orbits are not enclosed. The cranium looks odd too, I don't see any evidence of a sagittal crest.  Forward facing enclosed eye orbits remind me much more of bats and primates that need binocular vision for precise grasping.

 

Here is a tiger also.

 

 

I'd agree with Misha that this is either a fake or a poor reconstruction.

[Bobby Rico]

It looks like some art work and  not a real skull to me. The photos are not really very good quality and I always think that the seller’s are hiding things. I am in the completely fake camp too. I really pleased you looked for an ID before purchasing. Cheers Bobby 

[Hayley]

Wow, ok. Thank you for the feedback, all

[Kiros]

Super fake, some sort of carved skull! Stay away from rhis except you want to buy it as a work of art

[RuMert]

Looks like some hybrid spider mammal skull

[Top Trilo]

7 minutes ago, RuMert said:

Looks like some hybrid spider mammal skull

Those are some crazy spiders you've seen 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Look specifically at the eye orbits. They are just not like anything real.

[LabRatKing]

Artus facsimiliea if I’m not mistaken. The teeth alone are wrong, the orbits are off, zygomatics are mismatched and far too heavy.

[MarcoSr]

They probably were trying to fake an Orangutan skull.  The below skull is a replica of a Orangutan skull from 3B Scientific  The Indonesian specimen is a really bad fake.

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[LabRatKing]

3 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

They probably were trying to fake an Orangutan skull.  The below skull is a replica of a Orangutan skull from 3B Scientific  The Indonesian specimen is a really bad fake.

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

I actually own this model, and their chimpanzee skull. I agree with your ideas. However it also bears resemblance to certain lemur skulls too. Most definitely a poor fabrication.

[LabRatKing]

Marco got me thinking. I’m fairly certain this is a heavily fabricated lemur. Probably based on Lemur catta.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Dorsal-ventral-and-lateral-views-of-the-skull-and-lateral-view-of-the-lower-mandible_fig2_228624919

 

 

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, LabRatKing said:

Marco got me thinking. I’m fairly certain this is a heavily fabricated lemur. Probably based on Lemur catta.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Dorsal-ventral-and-lateral-views-of-the-skull-and-lateral-view-of-the-lower-mandible_fig2_228624919

 

 

 

Wow, this Lemur skull has the wide eye spacing of the Indonesian specimen and the nasal area also looks much closer to it  .  If we keep looking we might find an exact match for it.

 

Marco Sr.

 

[FossilDAWG]

What do you mean when you say "the person who found it"?  Is this a seller, or a person you personally know who actually found it and can vouch for its provenance and authenticity?  A pet peve of mine is when people say they "found" something when they mean they saw it listed on some online sales site.  You "find" things in the field, not online or in a rock shop.  A different word should be used for things other people have found and are offering for sale.  In the latter case, you only have their word for where it was found, the age and geological context, etc.

 

Don

[LabRatKing]

12 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

 

Wow, this Lemur skull has the wide eye spacing of the Indonesian specimen and the nasal area also looks much closer to it  .  If we keep looking we might find an exact match for it.

 

Marco Sr.

 

I doubt any match exists. The teeth are completely wrong for any species, extant or extinct, the zygomatic sculpt is really bad.

 There’s bits of at least theee different critters in this one in addition to the artwork.

[MarcoSr]

5 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

I doubt any match exists. The teeth are completely wrong for any species, extant or extinct, the zygomatic sculpt is really bad.

 There’s bits of at least theee different critters in this one in addition to the artwork.

 

I totally agree.  I said in my first reply post " The Indonesian specimen is a really bad fake."   I thought my sarcasm was obvious in my last reply post comments.  I should have added a bunch of after the comment " If we keep looking we might find an exact match for it. " or a comment about alien skulls from Area 52 that looked very similar.

 

Marco Sr.

[Troodon]

Hey this skull was posted by someone on the FB forum making the claims noted in the original post.   Who knows what the motive was and how much he knew what was done to it.   It sure has created wild unfounded speculation on both forums so if that was his motive, success..