Paleontology in Kansas

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state of Kansas

Paleontology in Kansas refers to

saber-teeth. Local fossils may have inspired Native Americans to regard some local hills as the homes of sacred spirit animals. Major scientific discoveries in Kansas included the pterosaur Pteranodon and a fossil of the fish Xiphactinus
that died in the act of swallowing another fish.

Prehistory

The Western Interior Seaway 95 million years ago.

No

ichnogenus Limnopus.[8] Other fossils from this time period include Wakarusopus tracks left behind in Douglas County by a colossal amphibian that would have weighed several hundred pounds in life.[2] Pennsylvanian amphibian remains were also preserved in Anderson County.[6] Primitive reptiles left behind remains that were preserved in Anderson County, near the town of Garnett.[2]

Pteranodon.
Restoration of a herd in a late Pleistocene landscape of northern Spain, by Mauricio Antón

Most of the

conifers which left behind fossils in the Garnett region.[2]

For the last 70 million years of the

Ellsworth County.[2] Flying above the waters of the Seaway was the great pterosaur Pteranodon, which may have migrated across the sea.[14]

During the

peccaries. These left behind fossils in the western half of the state.[15]

History

Indigenous interpretations

Life restoration of M. americanum

The Pawnee believed in nahurac, or spirit animals thought to inhabit some of the region's hills.[16] In Kansas, the spirit mound Pahowa was located not far from Glen Elder on the Solomon River. Pahowa was a forty-foot limestone formation with a minor pool on top that was fed by a spring. Pahowa was regarded as sacred by several local tribes.[17] Spirit mounds were likely designated as such on the basis that their sediments preserved the fossilized remains of unusual extinct animals.[18]

Indigenous peoples in Kansas have ground fossil bones like

Iroquois people in the eastern United States. These eastern legends portrayed the destruction of the great buffalo as beneficial because the creature was a danger to humans and the wild game they depended on for food.[20]

Scientific research

In 1859,

Charles H. Sternberg performed several years of fieldwork in the area, turning up hundreds of the fossiliferous nodules.[2]

In 1867 a

Elasmosaurus platyurus, although in his hasty work he mistakenly reconstructed it with its head at the end of the tail instead of its neck.[24]

In 1870,

metacarpals. These were the first scientifically documented fossils of the pterosaur that would later be named Pteranodon.[26] This formal naming occurred six years later, in 1876.[27]

In 1877

Gove County at Hackberry Creek in 1891 by George Hazelius Sternberg. Later, his son George F. Sternberg discovered another shark mummy in the same general area as his father.[28]

In 1894,

ichnogenus Limnopus for fossil footprints discovered in a Carboniferous-aged coal deposit.[8]

Early in the 20th century the sixth

insects newly discovered in Kansas and Oklahoma began circulating in science periodicals. The older of these was called Wellington XVIII and was located in Sumner County. The younger one was Oklahoman.[15]

In 1940

Benton Formations in Kansas. Many of these were originally collected by George F. Sternberg in the area west of Hays. The pearl fossils have lost the shiny outer coating, or nacre, leaving them dull grey or brown in color. 50 of these ended up being donated by Sternberg to the Smithsonian Institution.[30]

In spring 1952 an

Sternberg Museum of Natural History as FHSM VP-333 (Xiphactinus') and FHSM VP-334 (Gillicus).[31]

In 1956 western Kansas field paleontologist

Sternberg Museum of Natural History
catalogued as FHSM VP-404.

In 1963 George Sternberg discovered a fossil in

Ectenosaurus clidastoides. Only the tail and rear paddles were missing. Significantly, this specimen preserved actual impressions of the animal's skin.[32]

People

Births

Deaths

Natural history museums

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Murray (1974); "Kansas", pages 143-144.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Murray (1974); "Kansas", page 144.
  3. ^ Jacobs (1995); "Chapter 4: The Land of Texas Giants", page 122.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Sawin, Scotchmoor, Dale Springer (2005); "Paleontology and geology".
  5. ^ a b c Murray (1974); "Kansas", page 147.
  6. ^ a b c d Murray (1974); "Kansas", pages 146-147.
  7. ^ Lockley and Hunt (1999); "Western Traces in the 'Age of Amphibians'", page 34.
  8. ^ a b Lockley and Hunt (1999); "Interpreting Tracks and Track Habitats", page 51.
  9. ^ a b Murray (1974); "Kansas", pages 147-148.
  10. ^ Everhart (2005); "One Day in the Life of a Mosasaur", page 5.
  11. ^ Everhart (2005); "One Day in the Life of a Mosasaur", page 6.
  12. ^ Everhart (2005); "One Day in the Life of a Mosasaur", page 7.
  13. ^ Everhart (2005); "Dinosaurs?", page 231.
  14. ^ Everhart (2005); "Peteranodons: Rulers of the Air", page 214.
  15. ^ a b Murray (1974); "Kansas", page 145.
  16. ^ Mayor (2005); "George Bird Grinnel and the Pawnees", page 185.
  17. ^ Mayor (2005); "Spirit Animal Mounds", page 186.
  18. ^ Mayor (2005); "Spirit Animal Mounds", page 187.
  19. ^ Mayor (2005); "The Stone Medicine Bone, Pawnee Territory", pages 180-181.
  20. ^ Mayor (2005); "The Stone Medicine Bone, Pawnee Territory", pages 181-182.
  21. ^ Everhart (2005); "Sharks in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway", page 54.
  22. ^ Everhart (2005); "Where the Elasmosaurs Roamed", page 121.
  23. ^ Everhart (2005); "Where the Elasmosaurs Roamed", pages 121-122.
  24. ^ Everhart (2005); "Where the Elasmosaurs Roamed", page 122.
  25. ^ Everhart (2005); "Peteranodons: Rulers of the Air", page 195.
  26. ^ Everhart (2005); "Peteranodons: Rulers of the Air", page 196.
  27. ^ Everhart (2005); "Peteranodons: Rulers of the Air", page 199.
  28. ^ Everhart (2005); "Sharks in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway", pages 59-60.
  29. ^ Murray (1974); "Kansas", pages 145-146.
  30. ^ Everhart (2005); "Pearls", page 41.
  31. ^ Everhart (2005); "Fishes, Large and Small", page 72.
  32. ^ Everhart (2005); "Enter the Mosasaurs", page 167.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paleontology in Kansas.
  • Everhart, M. J. 2005. Oceans of Kansas - A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press, 320 pp.
  • Jacobs, L. L., III. 1995. Lone Star Dinosaurs. Texas A&M University Press.
  • Lockley, Martin and Hunt, Adrian. Dinosaur Tracks of Western North America. Columbia University Press. 1999.
  • Mayor, Adrienne. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton University Press. 2005.
    ISBN 0-691-11345-9
    .
  • Murray, Marian (1974). Hunting for Fossils: A Guide to Finding and Collecting Fossils in All 50 States. Collier Books. p. 348.
    ISBN 9780020935506
    .
  • Sawin, Robert, Judy Scotchmoor, Dale Springer. July 1, 2005. "Kansas, US." The Paleontology Portal. Accessed September 21, 2012.

External links

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