Gorgeous, 7.9" Fossil Oreodont (Merycoidodon) Skull - South Dakota

This is an exceptionally well preserved, 7.9" long skull of an oreodont (Merycoidodon culbertsoni) with natural open mouth preservation. It was collected from the White River Formation in Pennington County, South Dakota and would be approximately 30-35 million years old. Less than 2% of this specimen is restored which is astounding considering most of these skulls are found heavily fragmented, partial, and compressed. Complete specimens of this quality are hard to come by.

It is accompanied by an acrylic display stand to assist with presentation.

All of the teeth are natural, with some small spots of touchup restoration to two of the molars along the right side of the mandible. Crack repair can be found here and there, mostly along the zygomatic arches. False rock was placed beneath the right zygomatic arch following repair.