How do I spot a fake keichousaurus?

[Bone guy]

I have the dream of one day getting a fossil keichousaurus. I've also heard that there's a ton of fakes out there. How can I be sure that I'm not spending $100 on a rock with paint?

[ynot]

1 minute ago, Bone guy said:

I have the dream of one day getting a fossil keichousaurus. I've also heard that there's a ton of fakes out there. How can I be sure that I'm not spending $100 on a rock with paint?

From what I have seen on the forum here, there are probably no outright fake keichousaurus. It is a common practice to paint and construct parts that are missing. The market does have some pieced together from several partial fossils.

Do a search here for "keichousaurus" and You will see a lot of examples, some good and some not so good.

Then look for one You like, and when You find one You like - post pictures here and The forum members will let You know what they think.

 

Good luck,

Tony

[Bone guy]

Thanks for the info!

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

9 minutes ago, Bone guy said:

Thanks for the info!

What Tony said .. and also if it looks a bit fishy ? .. it probably is.  You know, if it looks like it was carved by an adolescent.  Note: .....this is a "turtle"

 

 

Best to educate yourself on the forum, bring it here for a second opinion and have fun !

[Bone guy]

I've seen those turtles a lot. An unsuspecting person, like I was, would have no doubt that was real. Now after researching a bit I'm kinda glad I got outbid lol!

[Tidgy's Dad]

This is a good thread on the subject : 

See how opinion changes over the four years of the thread. 

Very interesting. 

 

[The Speeding Carno]

Good features to look out for are missing bones, awkward poses, and calcite cracks running through the specimen.

 

[LiamL]

Buying from a good seller also helps, i was recommended a seller by a user here and bought two lovely specimens.

[aplomado]

Post pics of the one you are interested in on this forum.  The main thing to worry about with these is a bad prep job and paint touch ups rather than complete fakes.  There are a lot available, you don't have to buy the first one you see.  Some look a lot better than others.

[Crazyhen]

As far as I know, most keichs available for sale are genuine though as aplomando said they were poorly prepped and there might be some painted missing parts.  The keichs are just so abundant that one does not need to fake it.  I would thus not worry too much buying a fake one.  Rather, finding a good one is what you want to do.  Post it here and we can all offer advice.

[-Andy-]

This site might help: https://srjphorton.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/how-to-tell-the-difference-from-real-articulated/

These day, there are more real than fake Keichousaurus on eBay.

 

Here's a pic of a problematic Keich that fooled me into a purchase. The entire skull, most of the neck, the fingers, and the entire tail is faked:

 

And here are 2 more newly acquired specimens that are genuine:

 

 

Look at the skull of a Keich. There should be obvious skull material, sometimes even teeth. The bones of the Keich should be popping up. Better yet, get a specimen with a unique death posture, broken or bent body, missing limbs, dis-articulated spine etc.

 

If unsure, post pictures of a specimen you wish to get. The members of TFF would do our best to help you ID the genuine ones.

 

[KrystalKay]

Hello all! I recently made a purchase from a reputable dealer of this Keichousaurus fossil. I have done a lot of reading and realize these are often enhanced or faked through carving and painting. I have done a scratch test to see if I could expose more bone or scratch away any paint. I did not see much of the ‘bone’ portion scratch away and the ‘bone’ portion seems much harder than the surrounding shale. (The dark spot under the actual fossil is where I scratched the shale to see how it exposed) I think I’ve got a genuine article but would like another opinion. The dealer I purchased from is very reputable so I would like to give them a heads up if it could be fake. The first photo is how it came to me. The box is in Chinese except the translated portion which reads ‘Krinchousaurus’. Could not find anything by that name in reasearch, and in previous research, I knew of Keichousaurus. This threw up a red flag for me but I thought it could be a translation error. The second photo is of the fossil uncased from the frame. I couldn’t help myself I needed to know for sure. Thanks in advance.

[Walt]

@Troodon, @piranha, @Auspex

[Auspex]

To my eye, it is genuine and not over-enhanced. Typical of most  Keichousaurs on the market, it was quickly prepped with a wire wheel in a die grinder, and the details (of the vertebra in particular) were eroded. These are "mass-produced", and no more time is spent than that which will make them marketable. This is just the way it is with these.
A museum-grade specimen would be museum-grade expensive, so I would be perfectly happy with a display piece like yours.

 

[KrystalKay]

2 minutes ago, Auspex said:

To my eye, it is genuine and not over-enhanced. Typical of most  Keichousaurs on the market, it was quickly prepped with a wire wheel in a die grinder, and the details (of the vertebra in particular) were eroded. These are "mass-produced", and no more time is spent than that which will make them marketable. This is just the way it is with these.
A museum-grade specimen would be museum-grade expensive, so I would be perfectly happy with a display piece like yours.

 

Thanks so much for your input. I am quite happy with it! I love the display aspect of the nice frame and box. That was definitely something I noticed... when it comes to the spinal details it almost looks like one piece which threw me a bit. Thanks again.

[Seguidora-de-Isis]

3 hours ago, KrystalKay said:

Hello all! ...This threw up a red flag for me...

 

 

 

I'm sorry that I have bad news, but it seems that part of the skull and the teeths may have been painted... But do not be discouraged, because it is very difficult to find a keichousaurus that has absolutely nothing painted. In my opinion it was a great restoration job, and overall, you have a beautiful keichousaurus on your hands!

 

[KrystalKay]

1 hour ago, Seguidora-de-Isis said:

 

I'm sorry that I have bad news, but it seems that part of the skull and the teeths may have been painted... But do not be discouraged, because it is very difficult to find a keichousaurus that has absolutely nothing painted. In my opinion it was a great restoration job, and overall, you have a beautiful keichousaurus on your hands!

 

Thanks for your input. I did a scraping along the face and eye sockets and found it to be real. The teeth were definitely questionable to me!! I didn't want to go too crazy and scrape it off. I also suspect the tip of the tail and one of the 'flippers' to be restoration work. If so, whoever did it did a great job. I am very happy with this piece. Thanks so much!

[Bobby Rico]

3 minutes ago, KrystalKay said:

Thanks for your input. I did a scraping along the face and eye sockets and found it to be real. The teeth were definitely questionable to me!! I didn't want to go too crazy and scrape it off. I also suspect the tip of the tail and one of the 'flippers' to be restoration work. If so, whoever did it did a great job. I am very happy with this piece. Thanks so much!

Hi if It was mine l would not scrape anymore off. It is a nice looking fossil with only a little paint to enhance it. I do like display box too.  

[Seguidora-de-Isis]

1 hour ago, KrystalKay said:

Thanks for your input. I did a scraping along the face and eye sockets and found it to be real... Thanks so much!

 

I agree with our friend Bobby Rico. If in an ordinary Museum you start to remove the bones of a skeleton of Tyrannosaurus that are not real, you will get with very little mounted or almost nothing. But your keichousaurus is the opposite of this, you have in your hands more than 90% of the complete skeleton. My suggestion is not to shave it, it is beautiful in the way it is and anyone would not have the slightest difficulty falling in love with it. 

 

You are welcome!

[Crazyhen]

This specimen is very typical of an acid and mechanically prepped one.  The Chinese 貴州龍 on the box means Keichousaurus, the English translation is wrongly spelled as Krinchousaurus which is embarrassingly often the case for locally made fossil boxes in the source place.  Sometimes it is spelled as Keinchousaurus too. 

[Troodon]

Looks very nice enjoy.   Think everyone has done an excellent  job portraying what you have.  I do like the added touch of the box.

[Crazyhen]

Although most of the Keichosaurus available for sale are genuine/slightly touched up, I have recently found some very sophisticated made fake Keichosaurus hatchlings.  Look at the photos attached.  It is not easy to tell that they are not genuine.

[Seguidora-de-Isis]

10 minutes ago, Crazyhen said:

... Look at the photos attached.  It is not easy to tell that they are not genuine.

 

Super Informative!

 

It is precisely for this reason that I do not like to buy "unprepared" fossils just for online photos. In this case, I only personally buy it by being able to examine it in my hands.

[FrozenFlame]

56 minutes ago, Crazyhen said:

Although most of the Keichosaurus available for sale are genuine/slightly touched up, I have recently found some very sophisticated made fake Keichosaurus hatchlings.  Look at the photos attached.  It is not easy to tell that they are not genuine.

The only thing that looks really out of place is the skull (or maybe it's just the photo), other than that, it's a pretty good looking fake, would be quite hard to tell after the paint job. 

[KrystalKay]

9 hours ago, Crazyhen said:

Although most of the Keichosaurus available for sale are genuine/slightly touched up, I have recently found some very sophisticated made fake Keichosaurus hatchlings.  Look at the photos attached.  It is not easy to tell that they are not genuine.

These to me look immediately fake. They look like carvings and the head is disproportionate. I can see with painting maybe they wouldn't but that is why I did a scraping to test mine. Thanks for sharing these!