Brachiosaurus Bone Fragment Authenticity

[King Butler]

Ok a website I was looking at is selling what it claims to be pieces of Brachiosaurus Bone. I cannot post photos because I would incriminate the seller, but the piece looks genuine enough. What I want to know is the likelihood of it actually being Brachiosaurus. By my understanding their fossils are quite rare so even a small fragment of the genuine article would not be cheap, these ones are offered at 19 dollars. According to their information, their pieces comes from a Brachiosaurus femur from the Morrison Formation in Utah. The Morrison Formation is the right, and as I understand only, place to find such fossils if this was genuine but it's also a place were other sauropod fossils are found. They also include an image of some fossil bone that I assume the piece was taken from, but it's give no true scale to it or shape.

 

It sounds a little to true good to me, but what do you all think based on the info they provide. I personally doubt it, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask.  

Edited August 14, 2021 by King Butler

[Haravex]

Need to ask the seller how they have come to that identification. It is possible I have half a dozen camarasaurus ribs and there are small pieces of them that just don't fit back anymore so could sell them as camarasaurus bone, and it's possible the same thing has happened here where it is too small a piece to go back together but they know it is from the species brachiosaurus.

[King Butler]

17 minutes ago, Haravex said:

Need to ask the seller how they have come to that identification. It is possible I have half a dozen camarasaurus ribs and there are small pieces of them that just don't fit back anymore so could sell them as camarasaurus bone, and it's possible the same thing has happened here where it is too small a piece to go back together but they know it is from the species brachiosaurus.

 

Thank you for the information, I will do that. I've also done a bit of research and it seems the seller is reliable, as members from this forum have been confident enough to buy from them also. Not a guaranty but a good starting point. 

Edited August 14, 2021 by King Butler

[Troodon]

Cannot comment without seeing what you are talking about.  Sauropod bone fragments can be very hard to diagnose, first to which bone it is and second to a genus.  I would be very suspicious of their claim, might be true but currently the Morrison Fm has 24 sauropod species assigned to 14 genera that are recognized as valid.  Brachiosaurus is one of the rarer ones.  So I would definitely do what Haravex suggested and contact the seller.

[Fossildude19]

1 hour ago, King Butler said:

I was looking at an online retailer selling Brachiosaurus Bone. I cannot post photos because I would incriminate the seller, but the piece looks genuine enough. What I want to know is the likelihood of it actually being Brachiosaurus. By my understanding their fossils are quite rare so even a small fragment of the genuine article would not be cheap, these ones are offered at 19 dollars. According to their information, their pieces comes from a Brachiosaurus femur from the Morrison Formation in Utah. The Morrison Formation is the right, and as I understand only, place to find such fossils if this was genuine but it's also a place were other sauropod fossils are found. They also include an image of some fossil bone that I assume the piece was taken from, but it's give no true scale to it or shape.

 

It sounds a little to true good to me, but what do you all think based on the info they provide. I personally doubt it, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask.  

 

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Given that they are pieces of unidentifiable bone, I would just steer clear of anything claiming to be from a rarer dinosaur. 

Unidentified/unidentifiable chunks are just that - Chunk-o-saurs.  Is it really worth having if the provenance is unclear, and the bone chunks unidentifiable?

 

 

Most consumers cannot tell a Brachiosaurus from an Edmontosaurus, from a Torosaurus, from a chunk of bone.    

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Just did a bit of looking around and found the piece you mean. It's indeed a bit hard to discuss this vendor without incriminating them, but I'm fairly certain that the piece does come from a sauropod femur, as they state. As suggested, it could be that these pieces were left over from a prep-job. But, unfortunately, I believe it's more likely that they broke the bone into pieces, since they seem to have a decent supply of this stuff (other items warn of a limited supply). This leaves the matter of whether that original femur indeed belongs to Brachiosaurus up for debate, but I doubt you'd get a more satisfying answer by contacting the seller: their story is up on their sales-page.

 

I'd therefore give you the same advice as @Fossildude19, which is to steer clear from such fossils - for multiple reasons. Main and foremost, though, you've got no clear provenance, can't ever be sure it's Brachiosaurus, and when you want to pass it on, the person after you has even less reason to believe it is...

Edited August 15, 2021 by pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon

[Troodon]

Here is a Brachiosaurus bone fragment for sale .  There is no way anyone could say much about this fragment to support their claim.  

 

[King Butler]

Thank you all for your advice, sorry I didn't mean to be overly cryptic or unhelpful.

 

Thanks very much, I'll steer clear regardless of their reply.

[King Butler]

Just though I’d update all on the information I got from the seller. 
 

According to them the peices their selling are fragment from a fractured femur. Roughly 70% of the original bone was recovered, along side other material. Since a lot of the bone was preserved, it was identified as as a Brachiosaurus due to the “unique” shape their and Giraffatitan femurs possess. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by King Butler

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

49 minutes ago, King Butler said:

Just though I’d update all on the information I got from the seller. 
 

According to them the peices their selling are fragment from a fractured femur. Roughly 70% of the original bone was recovered, along side other material. Since a lot of the bone was preserved, it was identified as as a Brachiosaurus due to the “unique” shape their and Giraffatitan femurs possess. 

 

Thanks for the update! So, they're indeed breaking the fossil apart for sale in small chunks - which I personally always think is a pity However, even though they claim they were able to identify the specimen, there's still little proof of this. The seller wouldn't happen to have a photograph of the full specimen/femur with the identifying traits intact, would they? Because, if they do, and the bone texture and colour matches that of the fragments they're selling, this, I think, might still be able to give you a positive ID - if you're still interested, that is

[King Butler]

2 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

 

Thanks for the update! So, they're indeed breaking the fossil apart for sale in small chunks - which I personally always think is a pity However, even though they claim they were able to identify the specimen, there's still little proof of this. The seller wouldn't happen to have a photograph of the full specimen/femur with the identifying traits intact, would they? Because, if they do, and the bone texture and colour matches that of the fragments they're selling, this, I think, might still be able to give you a positive ID - if you're still interested, that is

Once I get home from work I’ll email them and see if they have, and are willing to share. I’m still interested, though it is a shame that such a rare find is being broken down. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by King Butler

[King Butler]

This will probably be the final update from me on this subject.

 

I emailed the seller on monday and after almost a week have received no reply about any photographic evidence to prove their claim. This leads me to suspect that they have none which pretty much tanks any credibility to this specimens identity.