Red Flag T-rex Toe Bone

[Troodon]

Looks like we've recently been down this road but it's important to keep raising everyone's awareness to issues with proper identification of dinosaur material.  It's also important that forum members or guests don't get caught up in buying Rex because it's Rex and carefully investigate these type of offerings.

What is being offered:

Juvenile T-Rex Toe Bone

Description: This amazing toe digit comes from a juvenile T-Rex.  I believe the toe bone is an outer first digit after the metatarsal from a juvenile T-Rex.  The Juvenile T-Rex toe bone measures: 1 3/4" inches wide by 2 9/16" inches in length

 

 

•An immediate red flag with buyers should be the word juvenile next to T-rex or anything else that should be large and is not.   •Isolated toe bones are very difficult to identify even for experts so having local diggers try their hand at it is problematic.

•The morphology of the bone is the next clue and it takes investigating what these bones should look like before buying and never accepting what is in the description.

 

Let's examine a T-Rex bone and just like the Nanotyrannus bone we discussed in an earlier post there are identical anatomical features which clearly showing the differences between the two bones, here are three.

 

1) T-rex : The dorsal (top) side of the bone has a deep depression just behind the articulation.

Bone X: The dorsal side has no depression, its flat.

 

2) T-Rex : The proximal (back) end flares out sharply

Bone X: The sides are almost parallel with just a slight taper.

 

T-Rex: The ventral (bottom) surface has a big arch

Bone X: A small arch and almost flat

 

This is an adult version if the digit the seller is trying to sell as juvenile.

 

 

I am convinced the seller believes it's Rex so it's just ignorance on their part why buyers need to educate themselves.   I think the bone they are selling may belong to Thescelosaurus.   Here is a photo of an articulated one in a jacket.  The digits can get quite big,

 

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[Susan from PA]

Thanks for the heads up!  I agree that it looks like Thescelosaurus.  Just like anything else.....if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  Just goes to show how vigilant you really need to be when purchasing.  

[Seguidora-de-Isis]

Truth! I also think it looks more like a Thescelosaurus.

Thescelosaurus Claw & Toe Bone - Montana:

[Troodon]

7 hours ago, Susan from PA said:

Thanks for the heads up!  I agree that it looks like Thescelosaurus.  Just like anything else.....if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  Just goes to show how vigilant you really need to be when purchasing.  

Agreed Susan one always need to be vigilant and not get caught up in the moment (it's rex)

[gebedao]

these are solid great usefull knowledge for identification. Thanks Troodon