Psittacosaurus skull

[Raulsaurus]

Hello!

I see this psittacosaurus skull on internet.

It seems real?

Is small the sizes are 6.5 5,3 4,1 cm

Thank you so much.

[Crazyhen]

For Psittacosaurus skull, you need to be very careful.  Fossil dealers at the source are very very good at making fake skulls with real fossil bones (bits and pieces from mammals or other animals).  They sometimes even add teeth to make it look more authentic.  This one looks ok but I honestly can't tell for sure if this is genuine based on the few pictures shown.

[Troodon]

Agree with @Crazyhen comments. I would not purchase any skulls online without being able examine it first hand with the ability to return it for a full refund.  Photos are never adequate to see restoration or composite issues .

[steelhead9]

This one would cause me a good deal of concern. There is not a lot of actual bone surface visible. It has been rubbed with a mixture of glue and ground matrix. There is only one reason I could ever imagine for doing that. The word concealment comes to mind. As Crazyhen pointed out, teeth are sometimes added for authenticity. Indeed, close examination of teeth is a valuable tool in determining overall condition of a specimen. Even without being able to closely examine this one, the teeth just don't look right, although I believe they are psittacosaurus teeth.

[Raulsaurus]

11 hours ago, Crazyhen said:

For Psittacosaurus skull, you need to be very careful.  Fossil dealers at the source are very very good at making fake skulls with real fossil bones (bits and pieces from mammals or other animals).  They sometimes even add teeth to make it look more authentic.  This one looks ok but I honestly can't tell for sure if this is genuine based on the few pictures shown.

 

11 hours ago, Troodon said:

Agree with @Crazyhen comments. I would not purchase any skulls online without being able examine it first hand with the ability to return it for a full refund.  Photos are never adequate to see restoration or composite issues .

 

6 minutes ago, steelhead9 said:

This one would cause me a good deal of concern. There is not a lot of actual bone surface visible. It has been rubbed with a mixture of glue and ground matrix. There is only one reason I could ever imagine for doing that. The word concealment comes to mind. As Crazyhen pointed out, teeth are sometimes added for authenticity. Indeed, close examination of teeth is a valuable tool in determining overall condition of a specimen. Even without being able to closely examine this one, the teeth just don't look right, although I believe they are psittacosaurus teeth.

Thank you so much!!

I read that there are a lot of fakes...

The seller sends to me more photos...

[El_Hueso]

I'm no expert but something looks very off to me.. Like Steelhead stated. It seems like the whole thing has been coated with a matrix, with very sparse areas where the hint of bone is visible. It doesn't look natural though. The best way for me to describe how I'm seeing it is, if I were to try to prep this, and remove that matrix, I feel like the bone that I reveal would not be articulated correctly or mix matched and placed into a skull "shape".

 

 

[Arion]

Personally this seems at best to be a bad prep job, and I can’t say I have a lot of confidence in its authenticity; perhaps some parts are real, but there may be a lot of reconstruction and if so it’s not clear where one ends and the other begins. As an example the left postorbital definitely looks a bit off to me, and there’s a rather obvious lack of sutures where one would expect to see some evidence of them at least.

[Raulsaurus]

On 30/10/2019 at 1:23 AM, Troodon said:

Agree with @Crazyhen comments. I would not purchase any skulls online without being able examine it first hand with the ability to return it for a full refund.  Photos are never adequate to see restoration or composite issues .

 

On 30/10/2019 at 6:26 PM, Arion said:

Personally this seems at best to be a bad prep job, and I can’t say I have a lot of confidence in its authenticity; perhaps some parts are real, but there may be a lot of reconstruction and if so it’s not clear where one ends and the other begins. As an example the left postorbital definitely looks a bit off to me, and there’s a rather obvious lack of sutures where one would expect to see some evidence of them at least.

 

On 30/10/2019 at 4:27 PM, El_Hueso said:

I'm no expert but something looks very off to me.. Like Steelhead stated. It seems like the whole thing has been coated with a matrix, with very sparse areas where the hint of bone is visible. It doesn't look natural though. The best way for me to describe how I'm seeing it is, if I were to try to prep this, and remove that matrix, I feel like the bone that I reveal would not be articulated correctly or mix matched and placed into a skull "shape".

 

 

 

On 30/10/2019 at 12:49 PM, steelhead9 said:

This one would cause me a good deal of concern. There is not a lot of actual bone surface visible. It has been rubbed with a mixture of glue and ground matrix. There is only one reason I could ever imagine for doing that. The word concealment comes to mind. As Crazyhen pointed out, teeth are sometimes added for authenticity. Indeed, close examination of teeth is a valuable tool in determining overall condition of a specimen. Even without being able to closely examine this one, the teeth just don't look right, although I believe they are psittacosaurus teeth.

Hello! Thank you for your help.

I find other one.

The seller told me that this is from adult and has not composite. Only little restoration.

 

[Troodon]

This is a better skull but its difficult to see the repair/restoration since these are low resolution photos.  I hate when sellers use the term "little restoration" is code for watch out.  I would avoid, why buy a skull with this much poor work.  What is not visible?  Teeth look okay.   Again if you purchase this skull make sure it can be returned.

 

The areas circled in red look like restoration and poor repair. 

 

The nasal area should have an opening 

 

Bad restoration 

 

Poor repair/resto

[rkfrace]

For comparison's sake, here is a bona fide psitti skull (with about 3% restoration):

 

[Cartoonfossil]

How much does a Psittacosaurus skull usually cost?

[Coco]

In the rules of the forum, which you are supposed to have read and accepted by registering here, it is clearly stipulated that we never talk about monetary value !

 

Coco

[OwlEyes112]

@rkfrace I'm going nuts over this fossil. That's just so insanely well prepped. Do you own this? Did you prep it?