Ammonites from the Planet Mars, Chinese Sellers!

[Seguidora-de-Isis]

Hello. Good morning to all of my favorite forum! Last week, I was rummaging through our favorite auction site, it was then that I came across so many absurdities that I felt obliged to make an alert here for the most inexperienced collectors who end up paying rivers of money when they think they have found a rare specimen!

 

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Specimen Nº 01

 

I'm going to start with this first specimen, which was originally supposed to be in poor condition, so what they did was make a series of scratches in a completely failed attempt to make the specimen more "attractive". And the seller is bold! He announces using the word "natural"!

 

 

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Specimens Nº 02

 

These types of Ammonites here I call Ammonites HP Lovecraft because they are polished (destroying the original and scientific shell here is nothing left) and then the tentacles are completely carved in the purest Cthulhu style of the Master HP Lovecraft:

 

 

 

 

Is it just me who see the resin made with stone dust here, used to glue the carved tentacles?

 

So in this case, even the base "matrix" is not authentic, but yes, it is also made with resin and stone powder!

 

 

 

Here the sellers are moderate, in the ad title, they use the word "Healing", but the funny thing is that before I saw all this, I was grumpy, but after seeing all this, I ended up laughing, so maybe really have some "Healing" power!

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Specimen Nº 03

 

This is my favorite and it was already a topic of debate here at TFF! Looks like Nasa found her and brought her straight from Planet Mars! Does not appear? I believe they originally tried to sculpt tentacles in this specimen, but the glue could not hold the tentacles, or even, maybe the carved tentacles broke, I do not know, but the fact is that she became hideously beautiful bizarre! But still, it remains a specimen with the shell destroyed by polishing and sculpted!

 

 

 

I wonder and have ideas if this specimen were black...

 

 

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Specimen Nº 04

 

And to finalize this post with a golden key, I would finally like to introduce you to this specimen, which I call Ammonite Rainbow ... Perhaps the shell is completely natural, but the fact is that the tentacles, I'm sure they are not natural and were carved!

 

 

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I do not know if these Ammonites are being adulterated in Madagascar which is exactly where they all come from, or if the adulteration is in China, which, by the way, imports thousands of tons of them annually from Madagascar.

 

But here I register my appeal to those who are starting to collect fossils now, let them not be deceived with bizarre specimens at tempting prices without first seeking some scientific knowledge on the subject.

 

Of course these Ammonites have great value, but merely artistic value, a beautiful decorative object, but never scientific!

[Troodon]

Some of these are very nice as art and are cool displays.   Very creative work.

[Haravex]

I'm actually not even that mad at anything except from the first one that is just ghastly, but if they where in poor condition to begin with I can totally justify turning them into something like this it certainly is creative as long as they are being sold as sculpted fossils I don't see much of a problem.

[Haravex]

Ouch ok then, yeah these should not be sold as anywhere near natural, which is a shame because I personally have little care for ammonites, trilobites and fossils like this but I was thinking about buying one of them just for the art side of this, but I must urge nobody to buy these and support the bad sales practice of misinforming potential new collectors.

[Miocene_Mason]

I don’t understand why one would even try to carve an ammo to look bigger. They are so common, just buy a bigger one from Madagascar! It seems like a waste of time.

[RJB]

Only the first one bothers me.  some of the rest are kinda cool.  I also dont see any resin with dust on the 4th one.  Someone has a  bit of time on their hands and some talent.

 

RB

[LordTrilobite]

7 hours ago, Seguidora-de-Isis said:

Is it just me who see the resin made with stone dust here, used to glue the carved tentacles?

 

So in this case, even the base "matrix" is not authentic, but yes, it is also made with resin and stone powder!

Nothing in this picture is glued on imo. No fake matrix here. That whole thing is an ammonite. The tentacles are indeed obviously sculpted, but they've destroyed part of the shell to do so. The suture lines between the septa can still be clearly seen all over those "tentacles" and even extend beyond them to the bottom of the picture. No resin and stone powder here, just a polished ammonite with carved tentacles.

The differing colours between the orange and grey is just because some of the septa have been filled with sediment and other have not and so got a different mineral replacing it.

[T. Nielsen Hayden]

Well. I’m glad they’ve been looking at pictures of live ammonites. It furthers their education.

 

I have a fair amount of experience with Chinese semiprecious stone dealers, and have seen some remarkable claims; but those specimens are standouts.