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The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the
Niobrara Chalk The Niobrara Formation , also called the Niobrara Chalk, is a geologic formation in North America that was deposited between 87 and 82 million years ago during the Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous. It is compos ...
formation is a Cretaceous conservation
Lagerstätte A Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These for ...
, or
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved
marine reptile Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semiaquatic life in a marine environment. The earliest marine reptile mesosaurus (not to be confused with mosasaurus), arose in the Permian period during ...
s. Named for the
Smoky Hill River The Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through Colorado and Kansas.Smoky Hill River. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.br ...
, the Smoky Hill Chalk Member is the uppermost of the two structural units of the Niobrara Chalk. It is underlain by the
Fort Hays Limestone Member The Fort Hays Limestone is a Stratigraphic unit#Member, member of the Niobrara Formation of the Colorado Group exposed in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota and is named for the bluffs near the old Fort Hays, a well-known landmark in wes ...
; and the
Pierre Shale The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from Pembina Valley in Canada to New Mexico. The Pierre Shale was described by Meek and Hayden in 1862 in t ...
overlies the Smoky Hill Chalk. The Smoky Hill Chalk
outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...
s in parts of northwest
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the w ...
, its most famous localities for fossils, and in southeastern
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
. Large well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as
plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Ancient Greek, Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and Sauria, ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauro ...
s, large
bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...
such as ''
Xiphactinus ''Xiphactinus'' (from Latin and Greek for " sword-ray") is an extinct genus of large (Shimada, Kenshu, and Michael J. Everhart. "Shark-bitten Xiphactinus audax (Teleostei: Ichthyodectiformes) from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Kansas ...
'',
mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the ' Meuse', and Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht o ...
s, flying reptiles or
pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...
s (namely ''
Pteranodon ''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late C ...
''), flightless marine birds such as ''
Hesperornis ''Hesperornis'' (meaning "western bird") is a genus of cormorant-like bird that spanned the first half of the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period (83.5–78 mya). One of the lesser-known discoveries of the paleontologist O. C. Marsh i ...
'', and
turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...
s. Many of the most well-known specimens of the marine reptiles were collected by dinosaur hunter Charles H. Sternberg and his son George. The son collected a unique fossil of the giant bony fish ''Xiphactinus audax'' with the skeleton of another bony fish, ''
Gillicus arcuatus ''Gillicus'' was a relatively small, 2-metre long ichthyodectiform fish that lived in the Western Interior Seaway, in what is now central North America, during the Late Cretaceous. Description Like its larger relative, '' Ichthyodectes cteno ...
'' inside the larger one. Another excellent skeleton of ''Xiphactinus audax'' was collected by
Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interes ...
during the late nineteenth century heyday of American paleontology and its
Bone Wars The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Acad ...
.


Viewing and Access

The general type area, the
Smoky Hill River The Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through Colorado and Kansas.Smoky Hill River. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.br ...
watershed in Logan and Gove Counties, has many
badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, ...
eroded into the Smoky Hill Chalk. ;Some natural monuments of Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas with public daylight access: * Castle Rock *
Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park is a state park in Logan County, Kansas, United States. It is owned by The Nature Conservancy and located about south of Oakley and a similar distance north of Scott City. The park features of Smoky Hil ...
* Monument Rocks


References


External links

*Everhart, M., nd
Oceans of Kansas Paleontology web page
*Everhart, M., nd

*Everhart, M., nd

Geologic formations of the United States Cretaceous Kansas Chalk Lagerstätten {{Kansas-geologic-formation-stub