7" Fossil Oreodont (Merycoidodon) Skull - South Dakota

This is a 7" 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. The preservation of the majority of this skull is excellent considering most of these skulls are found heavily fragmented, partial, and compressed. This specimen features nice three dimensional preservation with very little compression or disarticulation.

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

The molars and premolars are mostly intact and are all natural. The canines of the mandible are partial but unrestored. The left canine of the maxilla is nicely intact along with three of the incisors. The remaining incisors and the right canine of the maxilla were found disarticulated and have been mounted to the skull. The incisors of the mandible have all been restored. Restoration of the bone can be found along the angle of the right side of the mandible, across the majority of the nasal bone, and the right side of the maxilla. The right zygomatic arch has also been restored.