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Is this a real Hadrosaur toe fossil?


DinoNewbie

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I am thinking about buying a Hadrosaur center toe fossil. Before I buy the fossil I am wondering if they are real or fake and how I can tell.

duckbilltoe.jpg

duckbill.jpg

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I am not seeing any bone structure and they kinda look like there is a layer of putty over them (or maybe made out of putty?), hard to tell from these photos. 
I am kinda sceptical due to the lack of real details on the bones, it kinda worries me although it might be something to protect the bones during extraction. 
Perhaps some more detailed photo's of the surfaces of the bones, as well as some information about where these were found (formation, state, county, city) could help. 

I am sure @Troodon & @LordTrilobite could provide better insights, they are our resident dinosaur experts on the forum :) 

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Interested in all things paleontology, geology, zoology, evolution, natural history and science!
Professional exotic pet keeper, huge fantasy geek, explorer of the microfossil realm, member of the BVP (Belgian Association for Paleontology), Volunteer prepper at Oertijdmuseum Boxtel.  

View my collection topic here:

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Next project will be a dedicated prepping space.

 

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These are the toes of an Edmontosaurus so you can see the bones in the center toe.

Screenshot_20201207-161458_Drive.jpg.67bb6640b63974dd686beca6c018cd3b.jpg

 

I agee with @ziggycardon the there is a massive amount of restoration.  Its also possible that some of the bones were placed on that matrix block.  I would avoid

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Looks very odd. I agree with the others. It looks like there's a lot of "restoration". Who knows what parts are original or altered. Best to just avoid this one. There are much better specimens out there.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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looks fishy... and I don't mean fish-like.  Just plain bizarre; not what I would expect to see.  I agree with the others.  

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I have a good amount of toe bones from this family of dinos both in matrix and prepped out. I have never seen anything like this one before. It’s not to say that it might not be legit, but just looking at the pictures, it looks off in my opinion 

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So, I'll fess up here in hopes that this may help you along: I once bought a "hadrosaur ungial" as well, that looked rather like this. Up till today, I've got serious doubts about its authenticity, but am not able to properly evaluate it myself without being able to compare it to known authentic material. As such, I've kind of written it of from being authentic. I guess everyone has one or more items like this in their collection anyway, so I don't feel to bad about it, especially as it wasn't that expensive (which should've been another clue, I guess). But even if it's authentic, the nagging feeling that I wasn't knowledgeable enough to know whether it is or not, and thus may have introduced an artificial fossil into my collection is extremely unpleasant. All that to say: I'd leave this one be.

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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100% that was placed in the block. The middle toes look real but they are the cheap ones, ungual has had massive work and that end toe bone I don't think is real at all. 

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