Any restoration work on this Spinosaur foot claw?

[msantix]

Hi,

 

A while back I asked about the identification of this theropod foot claw, but it is still for sale and I am thinking of buying it. I wanted to ask now, if anyone can see any sort of repair work done on this claw (such as with the tip of the claw?), the seller says there is no restoration and I can't see any repair work on it, but I am never too confident with dinosaur claws. Thanks.

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by msantix

[LordTrilobite]

It has some weird features such as the bent tip. But most areas don't show any features of possible tampering. It might have been repaired tho. There seems to be some filling in on the ventral side.

[Troodon]

The preservation on the tip is not the best why I believe you have that odd shape.  Like Olof I dont see any resto.  but a couple of possible fill areas.  The profile of the claw is a bit odd with a wide proximal end compared to its length, might be Digit 1  The only red flag for me to positively identify it as a Spinosaurid is the apparent lack of depressions usually 2 on the proximal end of the ventral surface.  It looks flat but might just be the angle of the photo or the fill and some matrix in that area.  Also if Digit 1 might not be as prounced, little is known.

[RJB]

The tip looks repared or added? 

 

RB

[MBL13]

The overall morphology seems coherent with pedal unguals attributed to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus (Ibrahim et al.,2014; Maganuco and Dal Sasso,2018).

A few details are somewhat suspicious,for exemple,the distal "tip" is somewhat deflected and a few irregularities are present on the dorsal margin,but this features might be related to postmortem deformation or pathologies.There might be some repair,but I'm not very knowledgeable in identifying those details.

Nevertheless,most details are congruent, including the dorsoventral flattening,extreme proximal width and well pronounced ventral furrows (vf).The angle formed between the ventral proximal and distal margins is 161°-173°, which is normal for Spinosaurus unguals. If my identification is correct,it belongs to the third digit (un-III).

Here's MSNM V6894 (Maganuco and Dal Sasso,2018), until now, the only well described Spinosaurus ungual. This one is from a different digit.Hope it helps with the identification:

 

References:

1)Ibrahim, Nizar & Sereno, Paul & Dal Sasso, Cristiano & Maganuco, Simone & Fabbri, Matteo & Martill, David & Zouhri, Samir & Myhrvold, Nathan & Iurino, Dawid. (2014). Semiaquatic adaptations in a giant predatory dinosaur. Science. 345. 10.1126/science.1258750. 

 

2)Maganuco, Simone & Dal Sasso, Cristiano. (2018). The smallest biggest theropod dinosaur: A tiny pedal ungual of a juvenile Spinosaurus from the Cretaceous of Morocco. PeerJ. 6. 10.7717/peerj.4785. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by MBL13

[Troodon]

I've found that this publication provides a better representation of larger claws.  The claw in that publication is only about 2 cm long.

 

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253918093_Theropod_pedal_unguals_from_the_Late_Cretaceous_Cenomanian_of_Morocco_Africa

[MBL13]

The paper only provided three images,and they're drawings rather than actual photos.

Apart from that, Spinosaurus unguals grow isometrically,so there's little differences between a large and small ungual,reproduction of a chart from Maganuco & Dal Sasso (2018):

 

Reference:

1) Maganuco, Simone & Dal Sasso, Cristiano. (2018). The smallest biggest theropod dinosaur: A tiny pedal ungual of a juvenile Spinosaurus from the Cretaceous of Morocco. PeerJ. 6. 10.7717/peerj.4785. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by MBL13

[Troodon]

Yes only an illustration but to a collector it provides much more information since it's more typical of what they are buying.

[MBL13]

Certainly,it might be more useful for others. I'm more used to look at images,rather than drawings.

Edited April 15, 2021 by MBL13