Dinosaur Bone Fossil from Madagascar

[Crazyhen]

Hi, guys, fossils from Madagascar again.  Recently I found out that lots of rocks claimed to be dinosaur bone fossils are imported from Madagascar to China and they are polished to make ash trays or other utensils.  To me, this destroys the scientific value of the fossils.  I have attached photos of some of the unpolished fossils.  Are they really dinosaur bones?

 

By the way, I love this forum, and you guys are really helpful and have a lot of expertise.

[Troodon]

Nothing diagnostic to say anything about this item.  All about making money. 

[SailingAlongToo]

Looks like typical, random "chunk-a-saurus."

[jpc]

Chunkosaur for sure.  Not much can be said about it. 

[Macrophyseter]

Definitely a bone, but that's all we can know for sure, as its difficult to identify anything off a shapeless chunk like that, so people simply call it a chunkosaur. 

[Rockwood]

If a dinosaur bone ash tray introduces people to the concept of deep time I'm all for it.

[Crazyhen]

8 hours ago, Macrophyseter said:

Definitely a bone, but that's all we can know for sure, as its difficult to identify anything off a shapeless chunk like that, so people simply call it a chunkosaur. 

So, it's a bone from a dinosaur but we just couldn't be sure which species it is?

[Macrophyseter]

21 minutes ago, Crazyhen said:

So, it's a bone from a dinosaur but we just couldn't be sure which species it is?

More like a bone from anything that could fit that size. I think the term chunkasaurus is supposed to be a generic term for any bone that is unidentifiable, not just dinosaurs.

[Jesuslover340]

2 hours ago, Macrophyseter said:

More like a bone from anything that could fit that size. I think the term chunkasaurus is supposed to be a generic term for any bone that is unidentifiable, not just dinosaurs.

You would be correct. We use "chunkosaurus" and "fraglodon" all the time

[Macrophyseter]

Just now, Jesuslover340 said:

You would be correct. We use "chunkosaurus" and "fraglodon" all the time

speaking of fraglodon, I think it actually would work out if that applied to any unidentifiable tooth. I mean, the word is literally fragment + odon which simply means tooth, so it could still make sense when applied to any tooth, not just Carcharocles teeth. 

[Crazyhen]

On 2017/11/30 at 4:06 AM, Rockwood said:

If a dinosaur bone ash tray introduces people to the concept of deep time I'm all for it.

I want to show you guys some of the polished dinosaur bones from Madagascar.  It's said that while raw fossils could not be imported or exported from China, polished or worked ones are exempted. 

[LordTrilobite]

Wow, why would someone polish that? What a waste. That seems like it might have had some identifiable features.

[caterpillar]

Raw fossils are forbidden to export out of Madagascar. Fossils worked can be exported as they are considered as handicrafts

[Haravex]

I have seen fossils from Madagascar that have not been polished so not totally sure about that and yes that includes dinosaur teeth and bones.