My wife and I go to many estate sales. Recently we visited an estate sale in the home of a local rock hound. There was a tremendous amount of stuff: tools of all kinds and sizes and varieties, gems, minerals, lapidary equipment, jewelery, and fossils. Or what seemed to be fossils. Among other goodies, like a very nice set of ebonized boxwood Staunton chessmen, obviously turned on the lathe in the workshop, I bought, for $3, what seems to be a fossil dinosaur claw. It looks to be from a Deinonychus or similar, measuring 4" in the longest dimension and weighing a little over 10 oz. It is not resin, but stone. I think it might be the real thing. I'm going to put up photos, and I'll tell you why I think it is real and not a cast. UPDATE--1-11-2014: This looks a lot like a claw but it is part of a RUDIST clam, an endocast. I learned this by consulting a paleontologist. Many people have been fooled by these fossils. This is a genuine fossil, however, and is roughly 110,000,000 years old.
These are high resolution photos. They can be downloaded in native resolution. I see evidence of tendon attachment points, blood vessel passages, and wear and tear from use, ages ago. The rock material seems too complex in composition to be anything but natural stone. If I am correct, this is quite a nice find, for an estate sale. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing where this specimen might have been collected. Feel free to comment. I might be putting this on eBay.
These are high resolution photos. They can be downloaded in native resolution. I see evidence of tendon attachment points, blood vessel passages, and wear and tear from use, ages ago. The rock material seems too complex in composition to be anything but natural stone. If I am correct, this is quite a nice find, for an estate sale. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing where this specimen might have been collected. Feel free to comment. I might be putting this on eBay.
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