Are platecarpus skulls rare and is this a real skull?

[Oxalaia]

[Ramon]

Yes, platecarpus skulls are kinda rare on the market, especially fully complete ones that aren’t composites, or altered in someway. It’s hard to tell from just that one picture, but it look genuine. 

[Pemphix]

Hmm, 4 teeth with four very different colours next to each other is at least suspicious for me....

I see some restoration (grey mass filling missing parts), maybe some coloration in the back parts of the lower jaw...but difficult to tell from just one pic....

[Aurelius]

Something doesn't look right to me. Certainly there is a lot of authentic bone there, but how much compositing and restoration I wouldn't like to say. But it looks like a botch to me.

[Oxalaia]

6 minutes ago, Aurelius said:

Something doesn't look right to me. Certainly there is a lot of authentic bone there, but how much compositing and restoration I wouldn't like to say. But it looks like a botch to me.

 

18 minutes ago, Pemphix said:

Hmm, 4 teeth with four very different colours next to each other is at least suspicious for me....

I see some restoration (grey mass filling missing parts), maybe some coloration in the back parts of the lower jaw...but difficult to tell from just one pic....

Happy new year btw

[Aurelius]

That prep job is extremely crude. @LordTrilobite may be able to offer some insights?

[LordTrilobite]

I agree I think. It seems to be mostly real but with a very bad prep job and some repair and compositing. I think most of the skull is probably original though it might have some "borrowed" bones from different skulls. It seems to be missing a few skull pieces like the quadrates. Some teeth look like they might be original. And I do see a lot of definite "Platecarpus" ptychodon teeth on there. But some of those teeth, while the correct species are definitely glued on there and very likely do not belong.

There's also a possibility that parts of the skull belong to something like Halisaurus are it seems to show some similarities in shape. Or it might just have been reconstructed with that shape in mind.

 

So not the absolute worst. It's a step up from the horrid monstrosities we often see. But still quite a bad prep job. I'd still stay away from pieces like this. If I was in the market for a Mosasaur skull, I'd only consider this if it was priced as a very bad prepped skull, because it really is a quite ugly. I'd also want photos of the prepping process so I could find out a little more about which parts are likely to belong to the same piece. And I'd then likely remove any teeth that don't belong on there. That's a lot of effort for something that's likely to be way overpriced.

 

Probably stay away unless you're okay with a bad prep job with some possible compositing.

[JohnJ]

In my opinion, this is a confusion of various bones that could only be considered mosasaur artwork.

 

Platecarpus figures from Russell 1967:

 

[LordTrilobite]

7 hours ago, JohnJ said:

In my opinion, this is a confusion of various bones that could only be considered mosasaur artwork.

 

Platecarpus figures from Russell 1967:

While these are fantastic images, they don't really fit in this case because the "Platecarpus" ptychodon from Morocco has a very different skull shape. The one you've shown is an American species.

It's snout is much more pointed. It has less the typical stout triangular face that we often see on Mosasaurs and almost looks more like an Ichthyosaur with it's long thin snout.

 

This is what this species should look like.

[Aurelius]

Judging from the first picture, he has two for sale? I'd have one, if the price was right!

[JohnJ]

7 hours ago, LordTrilobite said:

While these are fantastic images, they don't really fit in this case because the "Platecarpus" ptychodon from Morocco has a very different skull shape. The one you've shown is an American species.

It's snout is much more pointed. It has less the typical stout triangular face that we often see on Mosasaurs and almost looks more like an Ichthyosaur with it's long thin snout.

 

This is what this species should look like.

 

Very true.  However, your reference images still illustrate my point that the skull for sale looks like an artistic hodge podge of bone bit and teeth to approximate the look of an articulated fossil.  

[Barby]

---Just got a look at this one.

Agreed: AWFUL prep job, in terms of authentic prep--although, a pretty creative assortment of bone fragments which appear to have been ground to fit (badly).

Some of the  teeth are authentic; some repaired (badly),and a couple of them look to be from another animal.

If you prep, you might be able to resurrect some of this specimen,