Conflict with how I collect dinosaur teeth

[JorisVV]

Hi everyone!

 

I've been collecting for almost 3 years now. After 3 years, I finally really know what my interest is. General dinosaur teeth + Marine reptiles up to the Cretaceous. 

 

I am bit at a halt however. For some dinosaur subspecies i have many teeth of. Which is starting to feel boring in my opinion. 

 

My thoughts want to collect as many dinosaur species as possible. Which require a lot of better contacts & patience. 

 

Do i sell of most of my teeth from one species or do I keep them? So many questions in my head. 

 

I'd love some tips, and how you other paleo fans collect your dinosaur teeth/fossils.

[Ludwigia]

Although I don't collect dinosaur teeth myself, I know that some collectors like to also collect teeth from various positions in the upper and lower jaws of each species, so maybe you could keep this in mind as well, although it's your own choice in the end as to how you go about this.

[-Andy-]

Look at your dinosaur teeth again. Hold them. Feel them. Do they spark joy in you? Then you keep them.

 

If not, you sell/trade them for something else

 

Owning a tooth that sparks joy in you is more important than caring about whether they are a different species or not

[FB003]

To me it doesn't sound like you are bored but more stuck as to how to start getting stuff that you don't have already. 

 

I think if you are looking for stuff from the USA, much of what you are looking for is likely out there.  I know you have plenty from Kem Kem and Niger already.  The tough part though will be the more elusive stuff from places you can no longer get fossils from or where they are not so budget friendly due to scarcity. That is where you might need to go to alot of these shows to meet vendors and see if they have some of those one of kind items you might be looking for.  I only know of three.  One in France, one in Denver, and one in Tucson. An additional option is to get replicas for the really rare stuff but that's not everyones thing.

 

Personally, I agree that patience is one of the biggest things you will need as there is really no way to plan when you might have an opportunity show up. It just might happen that one of the things you have plenty of may be what someone who has something you want needs.

[JorisVV]

1 hour ago, FB003 said:

To me it doesn't sound like you are bored but more stuck as to how to start getting stuff that you don't have already. 

 

I think if you are looking for stuff from the USA, much of what you are looking for is likely out there.  I know you have plenty from Kem Kem and Niger already.  The tough part though will be the more elusive stuff from places you can no longer get fossils from or where they are not so budget friendly due to scarcity. That is where you might need to go to alot of these shows to meet vendors and see if they have some of those one of kind items you might be looking for.  I only know of three.  One in France, one in Denver, and one in Tucson. An additional option is to get replicas for the really rare stuff but that's not everyones thing.

 

Personally, I agree that patience is one of the biggest things you will need as there is really no way to plan when you might have an opportunity show up. It just might happen that one of the things you have plenty of may be what someone who has something you want needs.

Thanks for the input. I went to France actually this year. SMAM was amazing. 

 

Agreeing with previous comments, Defintely keeping some stuff from african theropod collection. But still the vast majority is likely going. It will fund the claws and teeth for my expending collection.

 

Might as well trade some stuff. Which i find more interesting and fun.

[Runner64]

@JorisVV Like many other collectors, I started out trying to collect a tooth from every dinosaur species.  However, I have come to the realization that collecting a tooth from every species is both impossible and unrealistic.  Therefore, I have realigned my goals towards what I am interested in the most: Tyrannosauroidea teeth.   I now am trying to get a tooth from every Tyrannosauroid I can possibly get.  Still a bit improbable but I am now able to find more accomplishment and satisfaction in my collection by having goals throughout.

 

5 hours ago, JorisVV said:

Do i sell of most of my teeth from one species or do I keep them? So many questions in my head. 

Like @-Andy-, my suggestion is to reevaluate what you hope to achieve by collecting fossils and lay out goals to obtain what will give you happiness and satisfaction.

[Kikokuryu]

I'm also at a point where I'm not really adding that many new species, but just piling on more of the same. Just bigger or higher quality of the same thing while also unsure whether to sell/trade the older pieces. Granted, I primarily collect theropods, so a lot of the common sauropods and ornithischians in my collection have yet to be filled.

 

The "Holy Grail" species like Acrocanthosaurus or Megalosaurus, etc only pop up once in a blue moon. So it really is an uphill grind, and a long stagnant void until you even get that opportunity, and of course, every other collector is also after it too. I also like to collect crocs and lobe-finned fish, so that is keeping me engaged in-between the dinosaurs in the hobby though.

 

Admittedly, some of the "exotic" locales like Niger and Madagascar have started to lose that magic when they got way too common. The countless Suchomimus, the 100th megalosaurid (cf. Afrovenator), or 99% of teeth being Majungasaurus starts to get a bit repetitive. It does make the rare ceratosaurid, Masiakasaurus, Simosuchus, etc extra special though.

 

For Niger material, which we all have a ton of at this point, what I found is that taking a deeper look at the teeth, taking DSDI, CHR, CBR, enamel texture, denticle shape, etc makes things a bit more interesting. We all just slap the arbitrary Afrovenator/Eocarcharia or Jobaria/Spinophorosaurus on them and be done with it, but a lot of teeth are a lot more strange and weirder once you take a closer look. For the really odd stuff, it still excites me looking for and waiting for the next possible paper to drop on new species, tooth morphology paper, etc. The Middle Jurassic was an odd time, and I think a lot is being overlooked than just being just another Afrovenator.

 

I think before selling duplicates of a single species, it might be a good exercise to double check and make sure it really is and you don't let go of something that might be special. Even all the Suchomimus teeth, there's some oddities in there.

 

Embrace the indet., look for the indet.

 

But man, remember when Afrovenator and Majungasaurus were rare. Good times.

[FF7_Yuffie]

For my teeth collection, I also want to get as many different species as possible. But--if I find a formation especially interesting, then I usually buy whatever is available for it. For me, that's the Wessex and Wealden Clay formation. I don't have much from Wessex, but Wealden I have a lot of Iguanodontid teeth, multiple Ankylosaur teeth, multiple Nuthetes/raptor teeth and claws, multiple pterosaur teeth etc, because its my favorite formation.

 

I also enjoy getting juvenile and baby teeth.

 

If you're bored of teeth--branch out into other dinosaur-related fossils? I also love eggs and eggshell, and whenever I see a new eggshell I buy it. I have managed to get some quite rare ones, including some from Hell Creek. 

[North]

I understand the frustation. I have trouble getting some species even though they are not even rare.

I personaly do not mind having multiple teeth of same species as long they have different color, position etc.

 

But remember that you can always sell them later, but it might be difficult to get them back if you start to regret.

[Maxaurus]

I just started collecting at the beginning of this year, so I'm pretty new and don't have many fossils yet. After buying a few, I was also at the point of thinking about what else I would like to have in my collection.

My goal is not to have a tooth of every species, because that would be too expensive and time consuming for me, especially for rare specimens. I also don't want to have, for example, a 1 inch tyrannosaurid tooth (just because I can't afford a bigger one) while having a 4 inch spino tooth. So I would prefer to have a tooth that represents the actual size of the dinosaurs - which is simply impossible.

I will focus on collecting different types of dinosaur fossils (eggs, bones, teeth, tracks,...) and fossils that are unique to a dinosaur species, such as ceratopsian frill, pachy dome/spike, pterosaur wing phalanx, spino spine, etc.

 

Anyway, when you bought your tooth, something about them fascinated you, otherwise you wouldn't have bought them. Sell only the ones you are absolutely sure about, but it is better to have clear ideas in advance in which direction your collection is going.

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Maxaurus