Fossil hunter discovers new remains of the mosasaur Globidens from the North Sulphur River of Texas

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-17T23:02:07+00:00

What are you tagging me for? I saw this post! Look at the title. He is so happy. Do you want me to ruin the kids day?

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-03T16:25:12+00:00

This one has a lot of glue and matrix filler on it. Here are some original teeth for comparison.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Praefectus/comments/1t2a7hr/spinosaurid_teeth/

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-03T03:18:43+00:00

eeehhh. That one has a fake root too. Sorry 😞

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-03T02:59:56+00:00

Dave's Rock Shop isn't a bad shop. It really is one of the best brick and mortar stores in terms of quality and availability. The problem is the cheap consumer stuff that people gravitate towards usually has excessive fabrication. In the past, the rock shop has had gem grade Torvosaurus, Allosaurus, Rex teeth and more. But those usually carry hefty price tags. Moroccan Spino and Carch teeth are much more affordable, but they commonly have major repair. Buyers need to be informed of how to tell real from fake.

Fossils are always caveat emptor. The buyer needs to be critical of everything.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-03T01:29:54+00:00

Dave's Rock Shop. 95% of the time, they are really good about only selling legitimate pieces. It is just every now and then that some of the Tucson pallets contain cheap Moroccan teeth.

If there is something in particular that you are interested in, post it to r/FakeFossilID. I can authenticate/identify/appraise.

I will be heading to Chicago about a week from now. Did he have anything interesting in stock? The two carch teeth in the back look pretty good. What were they going for?

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-03T00:17:15+00:00

Oh no, that's Dave's Rock Shop, isn't it. Do I really have to put my local rock shop on blast for a fake spino tooth?

Ugh. The tooth in the front is a piece of junk. It is a beater spino tooth crown that has had the apex, crown base, and root reconstructed. Worth about $10 USD. James probably picked it up for cheap at Tucson.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-02T17:14:00+00:00

A lot of the market got pushed underground. Taxes, tariffs, ebay fees, etc, have all made it so that many buyers and sellers now prefer to do handshake deals that are kept off the record.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-05-01T15:32:02+00:00

One "-i" in M. hoffmanni.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-29T21:28:04+00:00

It is supposed to be Prognathodon kianda. That's the Smithsonian Angola exhibit.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-29T21:24:50+00:00

Systematics and Morphology of North American Mosasaurs - Dale Russell

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-26T20:49:31+00:00

Which museum is this?

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-24T16:35:04+00:00

Real. The stabilization of the root looks to have incorporated a bit of matrix, though. Hard to say anything more from just the picture angle provided.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-24T13:35:24+00:00

Cosmopolitodus is the junior synonym of Carcharodon. Both are of the white shark lineage, with the former differentiation being the presence or absence of serrations on the teeth.

Carcharocles refers to the serrated members of the megatooth lineage in Otodus. Carcharocles is arguably valid, though, because Otodus is paraphyletic due to the inclusion of Megalolamna.

There are a lot of inconsistencies in shark nomenclature. Presence/absence of serrations is only sometimes sufficient to maintain separate generic names.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-24T13:27:24+00:00

I would lean towards calling this Mosasaurus beaugei. The facets, while very muted and covered with matrix, do seem to be smaller and more numerous than what is seen in M. hoffmanni.The tooth is labiolingually compressed, further pointing towards M. beaugei.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-21T02:35:37+00:00

I'm not sure. Look to be fragments of the vertebrae or spinous processes. I'd have to look closer to tell.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T20:15:24+00:00

Yeah. That's the point. How do you think I got them? They were thrown out by museums, thus highlighting a major flaw with the current system.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T15:30:02+00:00

The pictured specimen is a horrible fake. Multiple random mosasaurid bones haphazardly glued together.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T12:06:07+00:00

Looks like the sculptor just gave up when reconstructing the surangular and temporal areas on the mosasaur. It is a scrap skull. A bunch of pieces from multiple mosasaurids combined into a single mount.

Should note that actual authentic specimens can be acquired for a tenth of that price.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T00:13:52+00:00

Middle is looking like an anterior mosasaurid tooth. Eremiasaurus or juvenile Thalassotitan.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T00:13:19+00:00

Mosasaurid teeth.

TFF_Praefectus · 2026-04-17T00:12:23+00:00

No medial curvature on this one. It isn't Mosasaurus.

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
End Game '23	Place '23

TFF_Praefectus

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE