How obsessive is Lost fan Dan Benton? In advance of this weekend's massive Lost prop auction in Southern California, he studied high-res screenshots of the creepy "squirrel baby" prop, freeze-framing episodes and comparing the images to a photo in the auctioneer's online catalog.

Benton, who watched Lost religiously since the show's first episode in 2004, scrutinized the freak doll image with the passion of a Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorist parsing the Zapruder footage.

"It's very time-consuming and painstaking," Benton told Wired.com by phone. "If you're going to do it the right way, you can't just click the screen, click freeze, look at the picture and then look at the screen real quick. There are a lot of distinguishing characteristics for every single prop that you really, really need to examine, and not just from one angle, but from several angles."

When it came to the squirrel baby, Benton did not like what he saw. The weird prop – made of scraps of bone, fur and fabric, and cherished by whacked-out character Claire Littleton (played by Emilie de Ravin) during the show's final season – failed to match up with the item being advertised as an on-screen version of the doll.

Call it the Great Squirrel Baby Controversy of 2010.

After his investigation, Benton diagrammed discrepancies between the two figures on his PropBlog. He and other prop zealots also pored over additional items from the big Lost auction taking place in Santa Monica, including Henry Gale's ID and the Dharma fish biscuit machine. (Investigators on the Movie Prop Collectors blog explained why the fish biscuit machine changed appearances over the course of the show's run.)

This multimedia sleuthing might represent the last gasp for Lost's most intense fans, who spent hours sifting through clues and posting theories in message boards like The Tail Section and Dark UFO during the enigmatic show's six seasons. In the process, they forged relationships with Lost creators and with each other. The hive mind's obsessive attention to detail helped transformed the sometimes-baffling series into an internet phenomenon as multi-tentacled as any conspiracy theory. During Lost's award-winning run, the fans also kept producers on their toes.

In the case of Benton's squirrel baby inquiry, the detective work paid off as well.

Following an interview with Wired.com concerning Benson's fact-finding mission, Lost auctioneer Profiles in History updated its catalog description of Lot No. 1068, Claire’s squirrel baby, late Thursday:

"After three years of living alone on the island, Claire kept a substitute baby fashioned of animal parts with buttons for eyes. When Kate questioned Claire about what it was, Claire told her it was 'all I had.' Made for the production, but ultimately not seen on-screen as the producers opted for a version with larger eyes and a more sinister-looking face. $300 – $500."

Profiles in History spokesman Marc Kruskol told Wired.com that four production models of the doll were made for Lost. "They shot two," he said, "so this was a production-used squirrel baby but the other one had better eyes so they used it for close-ups."

Joe Maddalena, president of Profiles in History, said auction listings often get amended as more information bubbles up about the items in question. He chalked up any "discrepancies" spotted by fevered Lost fans to props having been repainted, altered or repurposed for various flashbacks, flash forwards and flash sideways in the time-bending show.

The once-questioned fish biscuit dispenser, for instance, was last filmed for a Dharma training video that was made to look like it was produced in the 1970s.

"Because [Lost was filmed] on an island, they reused everything," Maddalena told Wired.com by phone.

Maddalena, who archived Lost props in Hawaii during filming of the final season, said the show's dedicated fans often focused on tiny inconsistencies – wondering if continuity errors might play a part in the show's intricate and mystery-laden plot. The ongoing fascination with the props is a fitting tribute to a show with one of the most rabid fan bases in history.

"Every piece in this auction was made for and used in the production of Lost," Maddalena said. "Some pieces might have ended up on the cutting-room floor, but not many."

Benton, a freelance writer who lives in upstate New York, acknowledges that he's friends with a Profiles in History competitor but says his diligent critiques of the Lost props are motivated only by a desire for accurate information.

"I'm just here to help collectors, especially the new ones, get the information they need," he said. "The monetary difference between a screen-used prop and a production-made prop are very significant."

And so ends what could be, but probably isn't, Lost's final mystery.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from Profiles in History President Joe Maddalena. Additional reporting by Lewis Wallace. Follow us on Twitter: @hughhart, @lewiswallace and @theunderwire.

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