Is this real?

[Carboniferous320]

Hello,  I saw this online.  Just curious if it actually is what the label states: Oreodont Braincast / Badlands of South Dakota / Oligocene Period. Thank you for any and all help.

[Fossildude19]

@jpc   @MarcoSr

[caldigger]

It looks like the one I have. Your label is probably correct.

[MarcoSr]

11 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

@jpc   @MarcoSr

 

Truthfully I've never seen a braincast from the Oligocene of Nebraska where my sons have their ranch.  However, I have seen the texture shown in the below picture of this posted specimen  before.

 

 

 

 

 

I was finding a few very hard specimens on my sons' ranch that I thought might be coprolites.  So I sent them along with actual coprolites to the NMMNH&S to be evaluated.  These specimens have the red Xs in the below picture.  Dr. Lucas from the NMMNH&S told me that they were concretions.  So I'm very suspicious of the posted specimen although it does show a different texture on part of it.  If they were brain casts, then Dr. Lucas disposed of the three shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[caldigger]

I'll post a pic of mine when I get back in town on Monday.

[RJB]

My vote is braincast.  ?

 

RB

[jpc]

I see nothing braincastish about this.  Sorry.  

[Randyw]

Two of my Oreodont skulls I recently prepped had either part or all of the brain cast exposed. Both Tina and Quasimodo showed it. unfortunately all I have is the sellers picture showing the top of Tina’s braincase I had already mounted the skull pieces back in place before I took my picture.i could probably pop those pieces off to take a better picture if it would help. But here’s my picture of Quasimodo and the sellers picture of Tina’s. Your pictures do have some elements that are similar to theirs.

[Randyw]

[caldigger]

Here is mine.

Oreodont brain case 

And here is Carboniferous320's

[Carboniferous320]

Thank you so much everyone for the helpful input.  This information has greatly increased my confidence in the identification of this piece.  Thanks again for taking the time to help!!

[jpc]

Hmmmm.... upon looking again... 

To me, a brain cast has no bone on it.  This one has a skin of bone on it, so I would stop shy of calling it a brain cast.  If anything I might call it a possible brain cast with skull bits.  To be a cast, technically it would need to show the shape of the inside of the skull.