Real tooth?

[Jurassicdquad]

Saw this on eBay for really cheap but not sure if it's real. Also, im looking into getting cheap spinosaurus teeth, anyone know any reputable dealers with authentic teeth? Thanks 

[Miocene_Mason]

Looks real to me.

[Macrophyseter]

Agreed. Besides, its not even worth making a fake that looks exactly like a real one (youd need to hire an expert artist, which will cost you more than the $$ you scammed), plus spinosaurus teeth are quite common these days.

[LordTrilobite]

Yup looks real. But at that size and without a picture of the bottom, there's a chance that it's a croc tooth, not spino.

[Jurassicdquad]

Here's a bottom angle

[LordTrilobite]

Is the tip as round as the bottom? If so it's likely Spinosaur. If it's more flattened towards the tip it's probably croc.

[Jurassicdquad]

Only pic if the bottom they had, what ya think?

[LordTrilobite]

Hard to tell from these photos alone. It's a nice tooth, but a little small. You could try wait and see if larger Spinosaur teeth come along. At a larger scale Spinosaurid teeth are quite distinct from crocs. Only at a small size do they sometimes look a bit alike.

 

Anyway, hard to tell for sure, but this tooth looks fairly round so I would lean towards it being Spinosaurid.

[Jurassicdquad]

Sounds good, I messaged the seller and he said that the difference is spinosaurs have 10-15 lines running down the tooth where as crocs only have 3 large ones

[LordTrilobite]

Not necessarily, there are at least two types of Spinosaurids in the Kem Kem beds. There's two types of teeth, one type has thin lines running down the length. The other type is smooth.

[Miocene_Mason]

2 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

Not necessarily, there are at least two types of Spinosaurids in the Kem Kem beds. There's two types of teeth, one type has thin lines running down the length. The other type is smooth.

I've been meaning to ask, which type is set in the jaws of the known species (morrocensis and aegypticus?)?

[LordTrilobite]

What species they belong to is currently unknown as far as I can tell.

 

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus originally comes from Egypt. Sadly the original specimen was destroyed and we don't have a good skeleton for this species. There are many fossils in Morocco that seem to fit the description of S. aegyptiacus.

 

There is another type of Spinosaurid known from the Kem Kem beds in Morocco. This is Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis.

 

A while back Nizar Ibrahim published a new specimen that he ascribed to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus as it showed a lot of similarities as well as some new features that weren't known before (the short legs). This specimen does not include any skull material.

 

There are a number of nice Spinosaurid jaw pieces known from Kem Kem. But there really is no way to tell to which species they belong to. Ibrahim considered Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis and Spinosaurus maroccanus to be synonymous with Spinosaurus aegyptiacus and use their fossils to reconstruct the missing parts on his new Spinosaurus aegyptiacus skeleton.

 

A more recent study showed that Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis is its own species. But Spinosaurus maroccanus is a junior synonym of Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis as it shows the exact same features as Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis. Sadly, this species can only be identified by it's neck and dorsal vertebrae right now. Though a partial upper jaw without teeth seems to be present on the Spinosaurus maroccanus holotype, but there is very little information about this jaw on the internet.

 

Another recent study based on the quadrate bones (which are located in the skull and part of the jaw joint), showed that there are were at least two distinct species present in the Kem Kem beds. but no species could be linked to either of these, just that they are Spinosaurid.

 

 

So to sum up:

- Forget Spinosaurus maroccanus as it is synonymous with Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis.

- Sigilmassasaurus brevicollis is present in Kem Kem.

- Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is probably present in Kem Kem.

- No Spinosaurid teeth can be labeled as either right now.

[Jurassicdquad]

Hey sorry to ask again but the same seller has this tooth as well, what do ya think real?

[Miocene_Mason]

That looks to be a frankentooth, two spinosaurus teeth glued together, a larger bottom half and a smaller top half, glued with glue and matrix mixture. It's two teeth for the price of one in my opinion, but most like one tooth.

[LordTrilobite]

I agree, it looks like a composite. Not worth it imo. There are many, many better looking ones out there.