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Terrifyingly realistic Pterosaur fakes


Aurelius

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I keep seeing this 'thing' pop up on my online searches, and I tried to ignore it, but... I can't.

 

It's from an auction website, where it has been bid up to around $300. Obviously this would convince most experts, so I thought I should post it so that people could familiarise themselves with the tell-tale signs that it is, in fact, a very clever forgery; primarily, that it looks like it's been designed by a five year old who doesn't understand what skeletons are.

 

The seller informs us that this specimen 'was found in the Liaoning Province, China'. Presumably in a skip (or 'dumpster' if you're American).

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

download.jpg

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The head tells it all!!! :ptero:

 

"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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Makes me feel queasy. People are buying this trash - unbelievable!

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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I think I reported this piece like a week ago. Sad to see it's still up. The same seller had bunch more obvious fakes.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Reporting doesn't work. I reported at least 50 items from different sellers, but I never observed any effect - not a single item was withdrawn ahead of time, all auctions ended as scheduled. Only thing you can do is to send an email directly to the seller. In rare cases, this will work. But most hardcore fakers just don't care.

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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32 minutes ago, oilshale said:

Reporting doesn't work. I reported at least 50 items from different sellers, but I never observed any effect - not a single item was withdrawn ahead of time, all auctions ended as scheduled. Only thing you can do is to send an email directly to the seller. In rare cases, this will work. But most hardcore fakers just don't care.

I think doing this publicly will help: the guy will just be sooo embarrassed.

Keep looking! They're everywhere!

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Might be, but where and how?  I would guess most buyers are rather inexperienced, uninformed and not really fossil collectors. So how to reach these guys - these buyers won't notice any public charge of wrongdoing.

We can not do it in TFF - we could risk a lawsuit. And we are not without fail.

Thomas

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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The bright side of these scenarios is that many purchasers wind up getting an education from the identification techniques and other fossil information on TFF.  This may happen before or after an ill advised purchase, but thousands of people view this site weekly.  Some become members, others may just read and learn. 

 

And there will always be people that are not concerned with where they spend their...disposable income.  :)

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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