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Hello, I saw this fully rooted moroccan Spinosaurus tooth for sale today, and wondered if the root is genuine, as most of them are fakes or reconstructed. Its 6,2 cm long, has a good price for wich I wouldnt mind adding it to my collection. The label says everything. @JorisVV, @Phos_01

My collection got quite shaken up. So from here on now I will be posting my updated collection and the additions that will be added in the future. Here is one of my crown jewels, Spinosauridae indet. tooth 6.50 inches Kemkem Basin, Morocco

Hi Everyone! I have this Spinosaurus tooth in my collection that may look nice if I was able to clean it. Any recommendations? I have never cleaned a tooth before and any tips would be welcome.

Good evening everyone! Looking around the web a bit, I wanted to offer you some photographs of some teeth on auction which will still have very high prices regardless of their quality or otherwise, but which at first sight seem very beautiful to me. Considering that I am a beginner, I wanted to ask you for your opinion on the condition of the three teeth so as to understand if I am starting to glimpse defects or possible repairs. The first spinosaurus tooth seems very beautiful to me, I don't see any cracks on the crown bu it seems to me that a vertical lateral list of enamel is missing. The root seems strange to me with this gray color (but I'm easily wrong)

Hello to everybody! I'm kinda new here, but before I start I must say I really love this forum! It has really great vibes and you instantly can tell that this is a good and friendly community! So, I am ziggycardon, I live in Belgium, close to the border of the Netherlands and when we start speaking geologically, I live on the same cretaceous sediments as where the first major Mosasaurus discoveries where done! Unfortunatly I have never been on a fossil hunt myself and everything currently in my collection was bought or given to me. But I hope to change that soon, as I am dying to go hunting myself. Maybe the Chalk sediments 3 km from my home would be a good place to start! For the rest, my job, my major hobby and my other main interest besides fossils are living animals. I currently work as the head of terrarium & aquarium in 3 different pet stores and I have quite a collection of reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and tropic fish myself. In my spare time I often take my own living animals along with my fossils and other educational natural history material to schools so I can teach kids about nature and it's history and hidden mechanics. For the rest are my other hobbies mainly based around movies and televisions as I collect a lot of stuff drom my favorite franchises like "Lord or the Rings" & "The Hobbit", "Game of Thrones, "Pirates of the Caribbean", ... And I also attent a lot of comic cons and other events related to those franchises. But then this topic! In this topic I will show my collection of fossils (and also minerals, stones and meteorites) as it is right now and then I will highlight each group of fossils bit by bit. I am currently starting with a own specialized fossil room, so ofcourse the progress and end result will also be posted here! And ofcourse when something get's added to my collection, I'll show it here as well. Sometimes a photo of my "special" pets or taxidermy specimens might pop up, but this topic will mainly be about the fossil room and my fossil collection. For the rest, if you have any comments or questions about the collection or about me or about anything, feel free to ask! I'd love to reply!

Hey everyone, I got this beautiful rooted tooth recently (from Kemkem), I was told it was Spinosaurus but I wantend to make sure it is not croc. Hope some of you can help me! Thankyou!

Hello, I saw some nice looking teeth on an auction today and wondered how many of them are real or have restorations. First are the Isalo IIIb teeth. Undescribed Megalosaurid : 1 2 3 4 Undescribed Ceratosaurid tooth : Archaeodontosaurus tooth : And at last, the Spinosaurus tooth :

From the top of the picture, in order. Globidens simplex Squalicorax sp. Siroccopteryx moroccensis Carcharias sp. Elrathia kingii Keichousaurus hui Fossil that I forgot species (I'll ask where I bought it later and write it down) Spinosaurus aegyptiacus Cosmopolitodus hastalis Mosasaurus beaugei Prognathodon currii Cave Bear(Ursus spelaeus) For me, an ordinary Korean high school student, it was a very big challenge. My fossil collection #2 will coming soon when I collected many fossils more!

Hello, I saw this moroccan Spinosaurus claw on auction today and wondered If its real or fake. Its 7,5 cm in length, and I think its real, as I dont see any evidence of it beeing one. It apparently is from the moroccan Kemkem beds. @Phos_01 @JorisVV

The past few weeks at the Tucson Fossil I ran across a few fake Spinosaur claws but also was surprised how many good ones there were on the market. I also understand the issues with online claws so decided to put this topic out to help collectors gain a better understanding of them since they are very expensive. These are my opinions and welcome others since no one person as all the answers. There is no bullet proof approach you can take to insure you have a claw that is not totally fake or composited. There are some things you need to consider. - First try dealing with what I call preferred Moroccan merchants, those are typically found at big shows and a few have online or FB sites, ones that specialize in Moroccan material are the best. They typically know what to look for and can point out issues with claws. Makes life a bit harder to get one but you want a good claw don't you. This does not take you off the hook its still YOUR responsibility to know what you are buying. - Unless you are an expert never buy one from Auction site. If you see one that interest you see seek assistant from an expert, not a collector friend, or post it here on the forum we have lots of opinions here. - 2D photos are not always the best to see what is going on with a claw, I prefer handling one. Composited claws can be good and photos don't show you all the issues. - Good preservation and quality are key for making life easy in deciding if its a good claw or not. There is where it pays to focus on the better claws. Claws that are deformed, partial, compressed, beat up or have matrix on them are very difficult to insure you have a good one and especially hard for experts to positively say its good. It always best to save and wait to buy a higher end one. - As a general rule try avoid claws that have matrix glued on them or have seams with matrix. The matrix is there for only one reason to hid trouble. Matrix is a red flag, just tread carefully when looking at one of these. Ask yourself why risk it and buy a potentially problem claw, there are plenty out there that are clean. PRICE = Preservation (Quality) + Size - Repairs - Real claws are expensive, simple as that. So if you see inexpensive big claws there must be a reason unless its the deal of a century and they exist. Most of the claws I show are in the 1-2K range for 4-6 inches. Here are a few from the Tucson show to give you an understanding what real ones look like. Focus on shape, the articulation end, blood grooves and preservation. These two are clean no matrix, no compression may have been broken and reattached, reasonable preservation. Nice claws for any collection Higher Grade - Fatter, nice surface finish, good preservation, few if any repairs. Couple of more examples. Honest merchant shows, some repair and resto. Excellent high end claw around 7 inches very very expensive Fake Claws These two were laying in the box and the merchant said he just had them fabricated. They look pretty good to a novice both reasonable size and configuration. Probably copied from a good one. Red Flags : Check out the graining its does not follow the curve of the claw but is straight. Uniform Color and looks too clean. Finish is flat with no hit of sheen seen on bone. Super long ones are the most suspect, here are two in a box. Unusually long and thin, usually the dorsal curvature is not smooth to the tip has kinks, the preservation is odd, hard to see bone, lots of surface repairs. These may be composited, faked or combo? Who knows to risky to find out. Off an auction site - terrible fake easier to spot- 6.9 inch claw One of the hardest items to replicate is the blood groove that is on either side of the claw. The groove is the widest at the articulation end and slowly tapers to a point to form a channel at the tip that extends outward beyond the dorsal surface. Here is an example of a perfectly preserved one. Here is the tip of the claw from above and you can see the blood groove is just a channel in the claw. Another Characteristic on these claws is that when looked at from the top or bottom they are shaped like an isosceles triangle. Much bigger at the articulation end than the tip. Preservation may affect this but most should be tapered. Like most theropods, hand claws vary depending on digit so there will be variations depending on that and the number of different Spinosaurids that exist in Kem Kem. This is a big unknown and we believe these type of claws all belong to the Spinosaurid family. But here are a couple more you can check out the blood grooves, articulation and shape More Examples of Fake Hand Claws: Bottom side is not a smooth curve, blood groove changes size, surface finish is odd not bonelike Carved but with an very poorly shaped deep blood groove Carved in multiple sections and shape is off, front end should not be that curved Photo provided by Jim Kirkland Carved, Composited etc Badly carved claw The following are all carved, examine how poorly the blood grooves are made.

Hello, I saw these moroccan Spinosaurus toe bones on auction today and wondered If they are real or not. They look pretty good and real, but before I should bid on them, I better have it confirmed or debunked. @Phos_01 1 2

So you want to buy a Spinosaurus Claw? Then this might help you. This is a guide I wanted to set up for a while to help others in finding and buying a real claw. Its mostly focused on new collectors. I have noticed recently many people are searching and ending up with fake claws. This made me upset, and I wanted to reach out, and hopefully safe some people from this trap. A disclaimer: this is based on my experiences and opinions, by no means im a Paleontologist or do I know everything, but since I have started collecting, I have been obsessed with searching for claws, and you learn allot along the way, and by talking to other fanatics and sharing information. The photos I have used are from the past, taken from the web , the forum, or auction platforms, or personal. Special thanks to some members on this forum who have helped and still help me with sharing they knowledge. At this moment there are more fake claws than real claws to be find online and in stores. This is very important to know. Its very problematic. And its a big business. Im focussing in this topic specifically on 'Spinosaurids' Handclaws from Marokko. Keep in mind a real claw is very expensive, we cannot talk about prices here , but im just stating , finding a good real claw cheap is like winning the lottery. Also keep in mind a claw is much much more rare then a tooth. The Spinosaurus had only 3 of them on each hand. While it shed tooth and regrown them its whole life span, this is why a Spinosaurus tooth is not so expensive and rare. Another thing to keep remembering, do not trust any dealer / or seller blindly, I have seen fake claws being sold by dealers who have a good reputation. Im not at all saying they did it on purpose. Its up to you to educate yourself enough to know what your doing. Also do not fall for the trap of 'with authenticity documents' it does not mean anything, and can be made by anyone. Key things that are very difficult to imitate are the bloodgroves, running from both sides, and the bone structure, that runs around and follows curve of the claw, and the general shape of the claw. Finding a complete unrestored claw is even rarer, most of them have a missing tip, or back end, much like Dinosaur teeth also, the tip is very fragille, and usually restored, or glued together. Complete ones are very rare. There is also something to say on what of the three claws your dealing with , the tumb claw is the most valuable and thickest so the most wanted , they can be massive. The bigger the claw the higher the price, its as simple as that. Im dividing this topic in 6 sections with photos, what to look for, what to run away from. Ill start with the bad, going down to the best. Mostly highlighting the traps. 1 - fake composite claws the most common 2 - Carved bone caws 3 - partially fake composite claws (very misleading and dangerous 4 - poorly preserved, but real claws 5 - restored enhanced claws 6 - real claws 1. Here we have some examples of fake composited claws. There are tons of them on the web, Ive selected a few of them to make the point. Look at the wierd curved shape, horrible! another very bad composed one , look at the awe full non smooth shape And here a pretty common thing you see with fake composed claws, they sure parts of bone in their creation , to make it appear real, bellow I've marked were Another bad example, notice the overdone bloodgroves, clearly made by man. Ive quickly marked some parts where you can see random parts of bone have been added. 2. Ok so now we move on to carved from bone claws. Ive highlighted one specific one that was pretty misleading. It looked almost to perfect, and they had managed to more or less let the bone structure follow up curve of the claw. Ive almost ended up buying this claw (luckily I did not) the week after the seller had posted an almost identical , proving even more it was a fake the chance of having two claws that are almost identical is 0 in ? . Looking back at it, I think its made from multiple bone parts shifted to make it appear that it follows the curve, the shape is also to perfect to be real. They also ad these cracks with some filler, to give it a more authentic appeal ! look out for these. Here al two other carved bone claws. For the untrained eye, real, because you see 'bone' its very misleading and dangerous, a complete fake. Ive made some markings, showing the straight line of the bone structure. This should have been curved , following the curve of the claw. Another thing to notice is the almost perfect unnatural shape, especially the back end. The cracks they add on purpose to make them appeal authentic. 100% fake. One more: Again spot the straight line structure. 3. Ok so now I move on to partially fake composite claws (very misleading and dangerous) it contains parts of a real claw, but its overall fake. Ive highlighted one claw as a clear example. Notice a small part of the middle area to be real, and the tip also, they have kept these parts and added composite around it, to make it appear as an a authentic claw. 4. Now we move on to poorly preserved, but real claws. A choice of the buyer whether you want to invest in this or not. It can be nice if the price is good. Usually the price is for these are almost the same as other real claws though. But at least you are not buying a fake. A very nice and huge tumb claw , it clearly shows the bone structure following up the curve of the claw. It also shows us a clear mark were it was broken and fixed back together with filler and glue. In my opinion still very nice to have. A large authentic claw, but it has allot of hard matrix still attached to it. This can be dangerous if you are not knowing what to look for. Notice the bone structure small holls, and the bloodgrove. And last a small but real handclaw, a bit poorly preserved. 5 - Ok now we take a look at Restored enhanced claws, these can be tricky also. A fair seller should provide you with a before and after photo. If you are OK with it, you can move along, but know its not an authentic complete claw. They make them apear bigger, better, etc. Personally I always prefer authentic. Photo of the claw as it has been found. Here is an example of a before and after. The same claw after the restoration? Can you recognize it? Also notice the redish color batch they add to cover up the resto. Another example bellow of a real claw that has been restored, and colored the same way. Hard to say what the original would have looked. And last another one were I have marked the real part, and most likely the complete tip has been restored. 6. And then we Finally move on to the REAL claws Here we see a very fine example of a middle sized claw Notice the beautiful bone structure, the small holes, and the flawless color, and the bloodgrove. Another nice example, completely authentic with some filler. Very nice example. Good tip and back end. Two other very nicely preserved examples, with the typical Kem Kem colorization. Another nice one I think its the middle claw of the hand. It has been cracked in three parts but clearly visible and real. Another example, it shows a clear bone structure, blood grove etc. These things are very hard to imitate. So there we go , Hope this helps some collectors! I might edit some along the way. Apologies for some typo errors it might contain. English is not my native language.

Hello! I am not very knowledgeable about fossils and I am having trouble. I need your help. Do you think this fossil is a spinosaurus neural spine?

Hi everyone, I’m new to the Paleo world and I was recently gifted this XL Spinosaurus tooth that came from a local rock and fossil shop. It appears there’s been quite a few of repairs and restorations done to it but I’m not sure. What do you guys think? Unfortunately, I have pretty limited information on it. Any advice / information is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys Location: Morocco Total Length: ≈ 7 1/2” Total Width: ≈ 1 3/8” Total Tooth Length: ≈ 3 7/8” Total Root Length: ≈ 3 7/8”

Hello! I am not very knowledgeable about fossils and I am having trouble. I need your help. Do you think this fossil is real?

When I caught wind of @jnoun11's traveling exhibit coming to Canada, British Columbia of all places, I made sure to book it down to the Vancouver Aquarium immediately! It was the most incredible display of Moroccan fossils I have ever seen and far greater than any permanent museum galleries! Of course I spent most of the time at the mosasaur section, finally getting the chance to see the marine reptiles I work on fully reconstructed in all their glory! The best part was seeing the species of mosasaur @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus and I named on display for the whole world! Such a great feeling! The skull of Hainosaurus boubker stood proud along side Thalassotitan atrox and the skeletons of Mosasaurus beaugei, Halisaurus arambourgi and Zarafasaura oceanis (plus some turtles). The murals in the back illustrated the diverse community of the phosphates in an active, warm sea environment which made you feel like you were right there swimming with them! The info boards were great and very informative with a fun "Monster Level" gimmick to show how fierce these predators where in their environments and times! Unfortunately Hain and Thalass were still under their pre-2022 names of Tylosaurus and Prognathodon anceps (plus using their smaller size estimates) which hopefully one day will be updated. I purchased a seasons pass just to revisit this display several times this summer while it is still around! Here are some photos of the mosasaur section (plus Spinosaurus) I took with my good camera!

Hello, I saw this Spinosaurus tooth on auction today and wondered If there are any signs of repairs on it that might end my decision buying it, if I wont find anything at the Hamburg fossil and mineral convention on Saturday. I quite like this tooth, its big, chunky, got some nice colours, and I love the overall look of it. Its not perfect, there are some small, not glued or repaired cracks that appear to have formed during the fossil forming procces. Sice : 11,2 cm Formation : Kemkem beds, morocco @Phos_01, @North, @FB003, @jpc, @JorisVV

Hello, I saw this rooted moroccan Spinosaurus tooth with root on auction today and wondered how much of it is real. It appears like its real, but was glued back together multiple times pretty badly. Should I avoid it ?

Hello, I saw this Spinosaurus tooth on auction today and wondered If the root on it is real, fake, or composite. Looks definetly weird, if there was a big area filled with plaster or something like that. But like if there was also some pieces of real bone used in it. Avoid, or not avoid, thats the question here...

I recently bought a Spinosaurus tooth from a fossil shop on the Rocky Moutains. I noticed this little ridge on both sides of the tooth. I looked at some pictures on the internet and im inclined to beileve that its from the premaxilla. Supposedly the teeth from the premaxilla are pointed with sharp edges on both sides. Could this tooth be one of those? Note that there is feeding wear on the tooth.

Aloha. here are two 3d printed models I showed before. The Turtle is selfmade, the Spino not so. I took the time to paint them and quite like the result. Pondered to give the Spino the reddish colour one often sees with fossils from kem kem, but decided rather to colour the "matrix", which is in fact a piece of treebark. Best regards, Jan

Hello, I saw this Spinosaurus claw on auction today and wanted to know if its partially real or a complete fabrication. Sice : 5,2 inch It was apparently found in the Kemkem beds, morocco. @Phos_01

Hello everyone I've been offered this sacral vert from the kem kem formation. The seller said its from a spinosaurus. He said he was told by one of his follower who was a paleontologist that this sacral vert was from spinosaurus and he said that he also did a bit of study to confirm that it was from spinosaurus. I think the paleontologist used the 2 sacral vert from the destroyed holotype for comparison. The seller also said that there were no restoration done on this fossil

Hello everyone! Ive been offered this "jaw section" from what the seller said is a spinosaurus. Is this true? Or is it a spinosaurus tooth composited in random piece of bone? This jaw section was found in the kem-kem formation.