Fake Trilobites

This is a collection of images of fake trilobites taken by Ramblin Ralph and two cohorts at the Tucson Fossil and Mineral Show in January 2007. One of his buddies was an expert preparator. These guys are experts who went in search of fake fossils. Generally, what they found in Tucson were some amazing and authentic fossils, with a notable exception: dealers from Morocco abounded, along with their thousands of amazing fakes, a few of which are shown below.

Feigning naiveté, the crew challenged the authenticity of the fossils which elicited lies and damn lies from the Moroccan fossil dealers, without fail. This they found was really too bad, since the fakes are so attractive, and so well represent accurate morphology as to constitute replicas far better than can otherwise be obtained. In other words, these fake trilobites that are sold as a cheap price would be excellent specimens for display and educational purposes at the prices ask. The problem is when shop owners are dooped, or otherwise doop their customers. Shame of them.

Unless you are experienced, it is well worth your while to review this tutorial on fake trilobites. Keep in mind that, as discussed above, it's the trilobites from Morocco that are of the most concern.

Fake Trilobites from Morocco
Cambrian Paradoxides and Cambropallas trilobites are the most often faked trilobites from Morocco. Real and complete specimens are almost unheard of. Almost all real specimens have what is colloquially referred to as rotten exoskeletons. That is, presuming the exoskeleton was once well preserved during diagenesis, it was subsequently at least partially dissolved. These trilobites give new meaning to the old saw that if something seems too good to be true, it is. Real specimens will always be reddish with a porous surface. A shiny, smoother surface, especially if brown (paint or shoe polish) is particularly suspect; this caution applies to essentially all Cambrian trilobites from Morocco. The fake trilobites shown above were dirt cheap.
An amazing case of trilobite genocide, mainly phacops and proetids, some of which were real and some of which were not. The asking price was laughable for this particular specimen.	Flat after flat of these fake Moroccan Dicranurus monstrosus trilobites were presented at $60 each. At the common discount of 50%, they are actually a very good deal. They are cookie cutter clones entirely made of resin, but set in legitimate Devonian matrix. Making these with crude tools is truly an art. What a deal!		Also abundant were cookie-cutter fake Ceratarges trilobites, priced at $50 before 50% discount. The morphology is impeccably accurate.
These fake Psychopyge trilobites were not such works of art.	This plate actually contains real trilobites that have been transplanted into an un-natural association	Here is a huge plate of unrealistically huge, fake Phacops trilobites. The trilobites were so ugly that they appeared to be right out of the quarry.	Fake trilobites mass mortality.