Fossil Discoveries in Kansas :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Fossil Discoveries in Kansas Did you know, in the state of Oklahoma it is against the law to either hunt or catch whales? Sounds sort of ridiculous when you think logically about it, but according to paleontologists it isn’t that far fetched. Over 65 million years ago Kansas, including the whole Midwest Region of North America from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico, was covered by the Sea. Due to the continental uplifts of the mountain ranges in North America during the Pangaea stage, the once shallow sea of Kansas became shut off from the sea-water flow and dried out to what we know it as today. The biome of Kansas over the last 65 million years has become extremely dry and flat, which would account for a once shallow inland sea. For example; Salt Lake City was once in the mist of a glacier that filled the inside â€Å"hole† of the City, causing the surface of it to be extremely flat excluding the surrounding mountains. Recently in an article from Elasmo.com, recognition for Mike Everhart’s discoveries has been noticed. Paleontologists and Archeologists in Western Kansas â€Å"have been finding sources of some of the best Cretaceous marine fossils that have ever been found anywhere in the world.† (Everhart, #1). These fossils, though interesting and vast, have pointed a lot of questions to how and when Kansas was under sea level. From my research, I have found that the only explanations to these issues and debates are the discoveries found consisting of both the archaic sharks and plesiosaurs. In my research, the Oceans of Kansas organization for Paleontology has given me more than enough to focus on when depicting out how to correlate our modern logic about how Kansas is mostly a wasteland to when it used to be an ocean with striving life within. The sharks that have been recently discovered are increasing not only in size, but by type. Mike Everhart, lead Paleontologist of this organization, in April 2002 discovered an extremely large shark called the Cretoxyrhina Mantelli "Ginsu Shark". â€Å"A large lamniform shark found worldwide from Turonian into Campanian time during the Late Cretaceous.   Much the same size as a modern Great White (but not closely related), the Ginsu shark reached lengths of more than 6 meters before becoming extinct about 82 million years ago.