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The old saying, Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder comes to mind here. A couple years ago I won an auction for a piece of ulna, larger forearm bone, of possibly a T. rex. It didn't mater to me if it was a T. rex or not, the fact that it was theropod was cool enough for me. It showed the structural framework so like that in birds today. I was tickled pink as it were.
This is what a fossil should do for you. Make you excited and wanting to investigate each and every nook and cranny it will show you. If a piece of tooth is what you like, go for it. I like the broken bone sections because I also make thin sections of them, a slice of the fossil so thin light shines through which has been glued to a microscope slide for study.
Maybe your filling out a collection of dinosaur teeth showing the great range of sizes, or maybe the vertebrae, showing the diverse shapes for the different species. Claws, ribs, eggs, and appendages can all be found on ebay. This is what a fossil should do for you. Make you excited and wanting to investigate each and every nook and cranny it will show you. If a piece of tooth is what you like, go for it. I like the broken bone sections because I also make thin sections of them, a slice of the fossil so thin light shines through which has been glued to a microscope slide for study.
Some words of caution here. China is the new treasure trove of dinosaur and early mammal fossils. China also has some extremely tough export laws now in place which pretty much only allow for movement of fossils between research institutions. Those complete dinosaur fossils you see coming out of China are fakes. Most aren't even casts of real fossils like some of the archaeopteryx casts on ebay, they are carvings and paintings of what looks like a fossil on a slab of stone. This is very true of the trilobites as well coming out of China and Morocco. Those with ultra fine spires and eye stalks just do not restore that well and when they do, they are sold for many times what you'd see them sell for on ebay. They make resin casts of a real trilobite and glue it into a carefully made recess in a piece of stone.
Here is a website which goes into a lot of detail about fakes:
http://www.paleodirect.com/fakefossils1.htm
There is a place for reproductions. When the real item is rare and expensive. They make great additions to a collection. Most museums display reproductions of the great dinosaurs since the real item is always harder to mount such as they do and many are under continuous research. So they make resin casts and the fossil is assembled much like the real thing would be. Even these can cost many 10s of thousands of dollars though.
But, there are great buys on teeth, digit segments, ammonites, insect included amber, fish, bone and egg , or eggshell pieces, to be found. And what you collect is directly related to what you like. Dinosaur bone is often colorful as well as is coprolites and can make really nice jewelry.
Trilobites and fish make great display pieces as does the orthoceras groups that are polished.
Ammonites also display really well.
Determine what you like, and then shop for the best deal. They can be found on ebay
Guide created: 09/26/06 (updated 09/26/08)
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