Mosasaurus skull from the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

[BagelSquirrel]

While browsing for Mosasaurus fossils, I came across a complete Mosasaur skull. I thought this to be rather unusual, especially since it wasn't extremely expensive. The seller listed it for around [price redacted] dollars, which I believe to be rather cheap. The seller claims that it is a real skull and that it has had a bit of reconstruction done on it. The deal seems a bit too good to be true, especially since it's coming from Morocco, which alone is a red flag. Should I purchase it, or will I get scammed by a fake?

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Monetary values are not allowed on the forum, as indicated in its rules.

 

Coco

[BagelSquirrel]

11 minutes ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Monetary values are not allowed on the forum, as indicated in its rules.

 

Coco

My apologies, is there a way to edit my post to remove that part? I thought it was important to the situation.

[Coco]

At the top of your message on the right, you click on the three dots and you do "Edit". You correct your text and you send.

 

If it does not work it is because you are very new, in this case you must ask an administrator or a moderator to modify for you

 

Coco

[BagelSquirrel]

Oh ok. The option is not there for me, so that must be it,

[Coco]

I reported your message to the moderator team, there is only to wait for someone to intervene to change it.

 

Coco

[LordWampa]

It's a total reconstruction. With 3D mosasaur skulls from morocco it's always difficult to see how much is real and how much is a reconstruction by photos. But in this case I see a lot of red flags. Tones of plaster, bad anatomic shapes... For what I am seeing this is a mix of random chunks of bones and plaster and real teeth glued. I would totally pass.

Edited March 14 by LordWampa

[North]

You need to be very carefull with 3d skulls from Morocco.

 

I have seen real skull only few times on sale. These plaster miracles you can see almost every week.

[rocket]

nice done rekonstruction skull, great for decoration. but, not an original one

There are some on the market, rare... I would assume 90% are totally reconstructed or faked and 10% are more than 30% original. And, perhaps 1% is more than 95% original. These normally do not come up at fairs or in the social media platform, only chance to get one like this is to have goooooooooood connections to some of the really reliable moroccean sellers or high-end-dealers

and you need a well feeded purse 

[LordWampa]

And i must add if the seller says it's from the atlas mountains run away twice as fast, mosasaur stuff from morocco is exclusively from Oued Zem, Khouribga not the Atlas mountains. Either he doesn't know that, so he have no experience in distinguishing fake from real stuff, so you can't trust his word or he knows and just doesn't even remotely cares at all. 

[daves64]

7 hours ago, rocket said:

only chance to get one like this is to have goooooooooood connections to some of the really reliable moroccean

I wonder if @Tidgy's Dad would qualify... 

Edited March 14 by daves64

[Tidgy's Dad]

51 minutes ago, daves64 said:

I wonder if @Tidgy's Dad would qualify... 

Indeed, I have access to many contacts here who are experts with sand and glue.

[rocket]

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Indeed, I have access to many contacts here who are experts with sand and glue.

 

all colors? I have some special needs for the moment    

[Tidgy's Dad]

4 minutes ago, rocket said:

 

all colors? I have some special needs for the moment    

Yes, a wide range of colours and for those shades we don't have, there's always paint.

[rocket]

59 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yes, a wide range of colours and for those shades we don't have, there's always paint.

Grandmaster!!!

[Praefectus]

It's a very fake skull.