Spinosaurus Tooth Real, Matrix or Glue

[Mister Forelle]

I just got a spinosaurus tooth by my girlfriends dad for christmas and i have a few Questions:

 

1. Is it real or how much of it is fixed up with some kind of matrix?

 

2. What is that bright white part glimpsing between the sand?

 

3. Should i try to free the tooth from the dark/sandy part, to reveal his real beauty?

 

4. If yes, how? 
 

Thank you for your time!

[Mister Forelle]

[Mister Forelle]

[Mister Forelle]

[Mister Forelle]

Hello I‘m new here. Posted something about the same fossil yesterday (see link below). But after reading through some posts i started to ask myself how much of those tooth are even real. 
 

I got them both gifted.

 

After reading alot from other people I learned enough that my amateur eyes can even see, that the bottom one is a composition of 2 or 3 tooths. But im unsure about the top one. It is in poor condition but it seems to me that under the matrix it could be a single tooth. Is there any way tonremove that matrix or can someone tell by just looking at it, if its a natural matrix?

 

[JohnJ]

@Mister Forelle

 

Welcome to TFF.

 

We try to keep conversations about the same items in one topic to prevent confusion and duplication in replies. 

[Mister Forelle]

@JohnJ yeah i tried to delete my first post, but couldn‘t find the option to do so on mobile.

Sorry for that!

[JohnJ]

No worries. 

[Abstraktum]

Servus aus München

 

Looks very weird to me, like there is a coat of matrix around the tooth and I'm not sure what to make of it.

I personally would never buy teeth like these. You can also see several glued cracks.

 

If you want to see whats really part of the tooth and what is just junk of glue or matrix I recommend to use Acetone. You can get it at every hardware store. 

 

To get an idea what Acetone does and how to use it, you can check out my topic on this 

 

 

[LordTrilobite]

Yikes, that doesn't look good. Both seem to be made up of partial spinosaur teeth. But it seems likely that they are composites made from different teeth.

 

Removing the crust on the one tooth might prove tricky. Any original crust will likely have a lot of iron in it and might be very hard. If it's crust with glue to hide where the pieces have been glued together it might be even tougher to remove. It's probably easier and less time consuming to find better teeth instead of trying to make these prettier.

[Mister Forelle]

Thank you for your replies!

 

They where both gifted, so i dont think that im gonna send them back. But i might try the Aceton method. (Luckily i study Chemistry and have some at home).

 

And than im gonna look for some better ones. Might ask you guys on your opinion again. A tricky thing for me is that as someone who is new to fossils it is hard to judge how much worth a good tooth is. You see some for a few hundrets on auction sites, which doesnt even look better than mine.

 

@Abstraktum Grüße aus Aachen!

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

7 hours ago, Mister Forelle said:

And than im gonna look for some better ones. Might ask you guys on your opinion again. A tricky thing for me is that as someone who is new to fossils it is hard to judge how much worth a good tooth is. You see some for a few hundrets on auction sites, which doesnt even look better than mine.

Happy New Year, and welcome to TFF!

 

One things about collecting, anything in general, is that something is always only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. As such, you'll see absolute rubbish being sold for ridiculous prices, but may also get lucky and find true gems for small prices. Often sellers will have quite a bit of margin on the fossils they sell, especially if acquired from Morocco. And with something as relatively common as a spinosaur tooth, I wouldn't bid too high unless you really like the tooth. Just decide what you'd be willing to pay for it, and stick with that. If you don't get it the first time, there'll be others, and you'll have learned that the value of this tooth was higher for someone else and, thus, how to win the race next time.

 

As to these particular specimens: I wouldn't have said spinosaurus teeth are so valuable as to butcher them up to this extent. But the evidence proves otherwise. Ouch!