Wow, this is amazing. I'm a huge fan of paleontology and this is very awesome. Do you find the fossils yourself or do you buy them from others?

I bought him from a frenchman who sold fossils. I wasn't sure if I should get him, cause he wasn't cheap, but one look at those teeth and I was sold :D

Cool. What others do you have in your collection?

This is my only skull fosil, my other fossils are bones of a horse and rhino.

Cool. Have you heard of Mark Renz? He's an amateur paleontologist who runs fossil tours in Florida, he's written a few books.

I can't say I have. I'm more into skulls and pelts, but I do love fossils :)

He's written one about Megalodon and another about an ice age dig site he found.

Books I'm going to read as soon as I get my hands on them *searches the internet*

I actually met him at a fossil fair years ago, he signed my copy of Megalodon: Hunting the Hunter.

cool :D

Very. Do you collect shark teeth by any chance?

I have a few, but I don't really collect them. I'm going to sell a few small ones. Still need to get some photo's.

Do you have any Megalodon teeth? Some of the largest can get to be bigger than both of your hands.

Sadly no. The biggest tooth I have is from an Otodus obliquus and is 8cm long.

I've gto one of those in a necklace, but not that big. My biggest Meg tooth is from a juvenile, it's about two inches long.

That's still a big tooth, don't want to get bitten by it :D

Yeah, it's about the size of a small Great White.

And that's why I don't swim in the sea :D

You actually have a better chance of death by bee sting than death by shark.

I know :D
I don't like bees or wasps. The reason why I don't swim in the ocean is just that I don't like water and I'm scared of jellyfish

Depending on where you live, jellyfish can be a big problem.

I'm not usually very interactive on this site, but these beautiful, selenodont teeth...

Thanks, they really are stunning :)

I probably would have bought this fossil as well, if it weren't for my professional pride. May I inquire about the price range of this piece? I'm kinda curious.

I bought him for 50€. I have no idea if this is cheap or not. It was my first fossilshow/market and I never saw one with the eye, cranial cavity and teeth so well preserved.

Sounds like a decent price to me, especially considering the size and preservation. With fossils and minerals it's always tricky, often they are ridiculously priced. Sure, collectors would pay a shitload to get a well preserved skull with teeth or that perfectly crystallised Hendenbergite crystall, but what is the actuall value of it? All you bought is a lump of bones or a rock that will sit in a corner catching dust. If you find it yourself, you at least can say 'hey, I dug that up!'

I'd never pay more than a hundred euros fo a fossil, even less for a mineral. I heard of people paying several tens of thousands of euros for an ichtyosaur sceleton, crazy...

I would love to find something like this myself, it would increase the value for myself a lot, but the only things I find are dead birds and mice :p
People do give a lot of money for such kind of things... The same is with taxidermy. Foxes are very popular and they sometimes go for extreme high prices.

Fossils are hard to find unless you're extremely lucky or know exactly where to look. Add to this that many sites are on private property, under protection or closely watched...
Yeah, chances to find something fancy are slim, even when you know where to look. On my last excavation we dug one and a half weeks, every day, from 8 in the morning 'til 6 in the evening. All I found was a humerus, some nearly crushed rodent remains and a woodlouse (which we had to forfeit to our digging partners since they own the site and all findings are split ).

Maybe I should dig up my uncles old stuffed animals... I still remember always petting that fox he had when I went past it. lol
Though his badger always kinda freaked me out. It had such an agressive stance, like it was ready to gut you.

I love to dig and search for things, I can do it all day! I should have become an archaeologist...
Aww that's a pity.

I never liked stuffed animals when I was little. Now I can truely appreciate them.

The digging is fun until you realise you will sit in a opencast mining pit at 30°C all day.
It's like sitting in a god damn oven. And archeologist are far too meticulous, go for paleontology there you can be a bit rougher. It's basically 3% talent and 97% not getting distracted by the internet. On top of that all paleontologists I met are totally easy going drunkards, makes for a good company.

I've lived in Japan for 2 weeks and it was about 35°C every day, so I know how you feel :D

Hahaha sounds like a happy bunch! I wouldn't know where I could study that.

As far as I know it doesn't really exist as a seperat degree/major anymore. It's mostly part of Earth Science/Geology as a specialisation nowadays. But it's not really anything the world *needs* so jobs are spread thin.

You should see some of the "storage" rooms (also called offices) in my institute. There are boxes with wine, beer, liquor and stuff stacked right under the ceiling. I'm still under the impression that at least every second fridge in our laboratories contains some beer bottles. I even heard rumors about a hollowed out book in the library.

Ah the same with illustrators... We must fight to get a job... :/

Hahaha Brilliant! Now I want to go back to school again :D

Now that is cool

Thanks :D
I'm very happy I got it. It's fascinating to know these were living creatures from before our (human) time.

I would love to have something like that in my collection, just to hold something like that in your hand is awesome.
Maybe one day :)

There are a lot of these fossils out there. I'm sure you'll get your hands on one someday ^^

Just did some research after seeing this post, the whole skull looks really cool and interesting, it's really grat that you can have a bit of one, that's really amazing

Very awesome. Thank you, as always, for sharing the awesomes!

Fossils are rare wonders. It's a sad thing that some people care only for their value, and some collector's are interested a short time then destroy them...
Since many extinct animals are only see-able in fossils, one should take great care with such things and put equal value in them as life.
And yes, to me, human life is not more valuable than any other form of animal, plant, or fungus... so people who kill and destroy tend to piss me off as much as those who defile remains of corpses.

I'm glad you have this. Hopefully you keep it in perfect condition and ensure its next owner is responsible and moral being.

This fossil is going nowhere. I will keep him until I die. Hopefully I can pass him on to the next generation and can teach them about these wonderful animals.
People would destroy their fossils? That's barbaric!