Mosasaur jaws, a cautionary tale

[Aurelius]

I took delivery of this jaw today. I bought it over the weekend, having seen it and been offered a reasonable price on it.

 

 

The initial pictures I saw were of very poor quality (the one above is mine), and it looked relatively convincing. In further photos, it also looked pretty convincing. The seller, I should point out, was not an expert or commercial seller, he was someone who'd bought it a few years ago and now wanted rid of it.

 

Some of you are probably looking at the photo above and thinking to yourselves 'that's not at all convincing, what were you thinking?', and you'd be right to think that, since all of the teeth are fake (or rather, the roots are fake and the crowns were composited in). 

 

I've been collecting these jaws for several years, and I really should have known better. Dodgy photos or not, something doesn't look right about the alignment of the teeth or the shape of the roots. I let my enthusiasm get the better of me, as a result of which I splurged money I could ill-afford on something which is mostly faked. The jaw bone is entirely real, but there's not an awful lot of jaw to speak of. That said, it wasn't very expensive and is, if nothing else, an interesting piece of ethnographic art, and far better than those dismal $25 fakes that you see everywhere. 

 

One of the things that helped convince me was the tooth on the far left, which I felt looked quite realistic:

 

 

The teeth on the right are less so, with roots which bulge in every direction, which appear to end at the point where they touch the matrix, and which in one area appear to be smudged on top of the jaw bone. They aren't the worst fakes I have ever seen, but they aren't great either. Up close they appear to be the usual mix of brown-ish plaster and sand.

 

 

I post this as a warning, really. If you're ever unsure, post it here before buying, if only for a sanity check. You don't necessarily need to be a newbie to make a newbie error (although it helps if, like me, you're an idiot).

 

 

 

[Miocene_Mason]

We’ve all done it. Let’s hope people see this and do it less. I’ll mourn the 40 bucks I once spent on a common composite trilo. I feel stupid for it, but rather it was ignorance. 

[snolly50]

56 minutes ago, Aurelius said:

tooth on the far left, which I felt looked quite realistic

I agree from the photo alone the left side of the piece, looks nice. Have you deconstructed any of the suspicious portions that you have listed? That is cutting into suspected plaster, digging into the matrix to see if the fossil "stops," as you perceive. I realize you may not wish to disrupt the display value of the piece as it exists. I once dissected a single tooth on matrix to reveal all sorts of monkey business, which became obvious when the curtain was pulled back. The entire "root" was made of plaster. The portion resting within the ersatz matrix was bright chalky white; unlike the cleverly stained visible portion. The matrix itself was composited, and when wet smelled of garden soil.

[Aurelius]

13 minutes ago, snolly50 said:

I agree from the photo alone the left side of the piece, looks nice. Have you deconstructed any of the suspicious portions that you have listed? That is cutting into suspected plaster, digging into the matrix to see if the fossil "stops," as you perceive. I realize you may not wish to disrupt the display value of the piece as it exists. I once dissected a single tooth on matrix to reveal all sorts of monkey business, which became obvious when the curtain was pulled back. The entire "root" was made of plaster. The portion resting within the ersatz matrix was bright chalky white; unlike the cleverly stained visible portion. The matrix itself was composited, and when wet smelled of garden soil.

 

I've not done much digging, a few small scratches here and there. The whole piece is covered in glue, which makes it difficult to do much digging around. I might leave it as-is - I am quite convinced that the teeth are pure fabrications, including the one on the left, which I believe uses plaster to cleverly make use of the shape of the existing bone (and perhaps a partial in-situ root). The matrix itself is unquestionably real in this case, a very thick block, cut flat on each side, containing many bones and teeth, including a sectioned mosasaur tooth half-way through it. It'd be interesting to get a CT scan of it and see what's in there, since this matrix is very rich in fossils.

[digit]

On the whole, it's still a cheap education. As a display piece it has some merits and only those who are well versed in these fakes will likely spot it. Thanks for posting it as a cautionary tale. Taking the extra step to post photos of possibly suspect items here on the forum to get a group consensus before plunking down money on one can be a great way of talking someone down from an impulse buy.

 

If you decide to keep it as a display piece, it will serve to limit future buys--think of it as a diploma in Caveat emptor.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Aurelius]

Here's the little mosasaur tooth that had been sectioned when the matrix was sawn into a block. It was about three inches below the jaw, so it can't be associated with it. I think it might be the only isolated mosasaur tooth I've found in one of these blocks, usually I just find lots of shark and fish teeth.

 

 

[Wolf89]

Wait how does that work?

1 hour ago, Aurelius said:

Here's the little mosasaur tooth that had been sectioned when the matrix was sawn into a block. It was about three inches below the jaw, so it can't be associated with it. I think it might be the only isolated mosasaur tooth I've found in one of these blocks, usually I just find lots of shark and fish teeth.

 

 

 

[Aurelius]

21 minutes ago, Wolf89 said:

Wait how does that work?

 

How does what work?

[Wolf89]

2 hours ago, Aurelius said:

Here's the little mosasaur tooth that had been sectioned when the matrix was sawn into a block. It was about three inches below the jaw, so it can't be associated with it. I think it might be the only isolated mosasaur tooth I've found in one of these blocks, usually I just find lots of shark and fish teeth.

 

 

Do you just dig in the block and find random stuff?

[Aurelius]

3 minutes ago, Wolf89 said:

Do you just dig in the block and find random stuff?

 

I do that often yes, but in this case I could see the tooth exposed on the edge of the block. You can see the impression of it here, and where I dug around it to remove it.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks for sharing. 

We've all got carried away with a 'real bargain' once or twice.

And so do we learn.

(hopefully). 

 

[caldigger]

Obviously this wasn't from one of your shops Adam. You put out top quality pieces.