Tortoise fossil?

[RhinoWater]

I am looking to purchase a tortoise fossil for a while, and stumbled upon a listing for a fairly large stylemys nebrascensis for a pretty decent price. I have contacted the seller and he assured no restoration and a 100% authenticity.

 

Just trying to gather opinions about the fossil and its authencity, and if there's any restorations/repairs.

 

Thank you.

[Danielb]

I do think it is real but it has a lot of putty work on it.

Edited January 22 by Danielb

[trilobites_are_awesome]

Looks restored heavily to me.

[rocket]

70% original, 30% restored...

 

[Fossildude19]

Gentle reminder to speak only to the fossils, not the dealers.

[Psittacosaur9]

Looks pretty massively restored.

[aeon.rocks]

"stumbled upon a listing for a fairly large stylemys nebrascensis for a pretty decent price." Red flags underlined!

 

This is 40x30 cm in size and priced as 15 cm specimen! Still very high considering it's 4 figures, imho.

 

Think about this however: Are you looking for 100% natural tortoise and hoping to get a decent price for a large specimen? Good luck! 

 

When you follow the market long enough you realize there is no such thing as a decent or cheap price for top quality preserved, large, all natural fossil specimens! It's either decent/cheap price for restored, butchered, fake or damaged/bad preserved specimens and high price for natural good preserved rare specimens! And then there's fakes, restored specimens and composites with high price in the mix from sellers "who don't know what they are selling". So you better know what you are paying for... 

 

 

 

[RhinoWater]

Hello all! Thank you for the advice and tips. I really appreciate it a lot as a amateur fossil collector. 😀