Keystone Gallery is a fossil museum north of

Scott City, Kansas Scott City is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Kansas, Scott County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,113. History Early history For millennia, the Great ...

, that was established in 1991 in a former church building by Chuck Bonner and Barbara Shelton to display the region's fossils. Chuck Bonner is the son of the paleontologist

Marion Charles Bonner Marion Charles Bonner (1911–1992), based for most of his life in Leoti, Kansas, was an American field paleontologist who discovered and collected hundreds of fossils, primarily from the Niobrara Cretaceous Smoky Hill chalk outcroppings in Logan, ...

, and the family's fossils are found in museums across the country. A mural by Bonner depicts ancient sea creatures that lived in this area of western Kansas 82 to 87 million years ago and were deposited in the

Niobrara Formation 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 compose ...

. The museum is nine miles, respectively, from Monument Rocks, Kansas's first National Natural Landmark; Historic

Lake Scott State Park Lake Scott State Park is a List of Kansas state parks, Kansas state park in Scott County, Kansas, Scott County, Kansas in the United States. The park was established in 1928 following a donation of the land by the Herbert Steele family. The park, ...

, home of

El Cuartelejo El Cuartelejo, or El Quartelejo (from Spanish ''cuartelejo'', meaning ''old building'' or ''barracks''), is a region in eastern Colorado and western Kansas where Plains Apache cohabited with Puebloans. Subject to religious persecution, Puebloans ...

, the only known Indian pueblo in Kansas; and

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 Hill ...

. The museum's fossil collection includes a 20-foot

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 on th ...

, a 14-foot ''

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. ...

'' fish, ''

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 Cr ...

'' specimens, fossil birds, and numerous other late Cretaceous animals. The owners are field paleontologists and were participants in the

NOVA A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

series ''

Making North America ''Making North America'' is a 2015 American documentary film which premiered nationwide on November 4, 2015. The PBS Nova film, comprising three episodes of one hour each, was hosted by Kirk Johnson (Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of ...

''.

References

External links

* {{coord, 38.7430, -100.8687, type:landmark_region:US-KS, display=title Museums established in 1991 Museums in Scott County, Kansas Natural history museums in Kansas