Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea

by Michael J. Everhart

Book Overview

The bright midday sun glinted off the calm waters of the Inland Sea and silhouetted the long, sinuous form of a huge mosasaur lying motionless amid the floating tangle of yellow-green seaweed. Twenty years old and more than thirty feet in length, the adult mosasaur was almost full-grown and was much larger than any of the fish or sharks that lived in the shallow seaway. A swift and powerful swimmer over short distances, the mosasaur used surprise and the thrust of his muscular tail to outrun his prey with a short burst of speed." _from Chapter One Although Kansas is now high and dry, at one time the state, like most of the Midwest, was under water. Until the land finally rose above sea level during the final years of the Late Cretaceous, the area was covered by a succession of oceans whose geologic record is preserved in the sedimentary rock that covers the Great Plains. Oceans of Kansas tells the story of the five million years when giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth flourished in and around this shallow sea. The abundant and well-preserved remains of these prehistoric animals were the source of great excitement in the scientific community of the day when they were first discovered in the 1860s. Two of the best-known fossil hunters of the time, E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh, competed vigorously to recover the best specimens. During the past 130 years, thousands have been collected and sent to museums around the world. Michael J. Everhart tells the fascinating story of their discovery, re-creates the animals and the world in which they lived, and presents the fruits of the latest research into the natural history of America_s ancient inland sea.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253345472
• ISBN13: 9780253345479
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on a long ignored subject

I have long been facinated by extinct marine reptiles and have been waiting for a book like this since I was a child. The wait was worth it. This book is facinating and well written, as the subject deserves. Part travel book, part history of science and part prehistory of the center of North America this book is all interesting and all fun. Well worth the read and a challenge to those who follow to tell the story of other prehistoric seas with equal vim.

Should be one like it for every state!

I found the description of this book intriguing and found it listed in a couple of different places, so I decided I was fated to read it. I wasn't disappointed either. Although in places the non-professional may find their eyes glazing, for the most part, it is full of interesting information on the faunal era of the Cretaceous Interior Sea of North America (roughly the entire Midwest from Northern Canada to the present Gulf of Mexico). Particularly fascinating is Everhart's discussion of the famous fossil finders of Kansas: Professor Benjamin Mudge, the Sternberg family (George H., George M., and Charles H.), Theophilus Turner, and Samuel Williston, all of whom provided some of the earliest and finest material from this period now found in Eastern and European museums. Some of their finds formed the type basis of species and genus descriptions for the marine fauna of the age world wide. Should anyone have the erroneous impression that scientists are totally objective and above petty squabbles, the author's frequent comments on the famous Cope and Marsh and their "bone wars," will totally disabuse you of the notion. Marsh from the Yale Peabody Museum and Cope from the Accademy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia conducted a personal battle to be the first to describe and name in print specimen arriving from the midwest that is virtually legendary in paleontology and geology departments. Both employed the local talent of Kansas to find suitable museum quality specimen for display. The 19th century seemed to have been the age of "collections" of every conceivable type. In an age before television and cinema, such collections drew large crowds, as P. T. Barnum's' menagerie of oddities illustrated. In their field of natural history, the two scientists rivaled the ambitions of the fine art and archaeological collectors of some of the nation's art museums and even Barnum's more eclectic presentations. Particularly interesting is the author's presentation of his own fossil finds and of the techniques and difficulties in removing specimen from their in situ location to one for preservation. It is obvious from his occasional reference to his field work that he is not simply an armchair or lab bound paleontologist. Although not the more biographical work that the writing of Peter Ward tends to be, in context, the personal experiences described by Everhart provide the reader with some idea of what the field involves. This might be of some interest to young people looking for a career in the biological sciences that does not involve all indoor work. The book is extremely well organized, introducing the geology and earth history of the region now the part of the state of Kansas and describing in some detail the various categories of animals found there. Each of the chapters on a given type of animal is introduced by a short fictional account of what their life was like and how the particular specimen introduced might have met its end

A Visit to Cretaceous SeaWorld

"Imagine if you will the middle of North America covered by a vast inland sea...one that stretched for hundreds of miles from Utah to Minnesota, and from the Gulf of Mexico past the Arctic Circle." This sea, as evocatively rendered in Michael J. Everhart's book Oceans of Kansas - An Natural History of the Western Interior Sea is teeming with the kind of life that would give Carcharodon carcharias nightmares. For years now, and long before its current incarnation in hard cover, I have been a frequent visitor to the Oceans of Kansas; having first run across the incredible website of that name while doing research for my own book. "Something about Plesiosaurs" was my introduction to the great western interior sea and its champion and guide Mike Everhart. Many an armchair paleontologist has Googled mosasaur or plesiosaur and been beguiled by Everhart's comprehensive and beautiful website. Some of us have also benefited enormously from his first hand knowledge of the world he describes, as well as his patient indulgence and tolerance for the questions of an eager novice. The book Oceans of Kansas, like the website, is a fascinating ancient world elucidated by Everhart's stirring prose and the dramatic reconstructions of painter Dan Varner. Here now in print are the fearsome giant Cretoxyrhina mantelli, a 20-foot bone-shearing "ginsu" shark, along with the smaller scavengers Squalicorax falcatus, S. kaupi and S. pristodontus. Other denizens include turtles and pterosaurs and Ichthyornis (a small toothed bird from the late Cretaceous) not to mention Tylosaurus proriger, the 29 foot mosasaur with its four foot long, tooth filled skull; or another less fearsome mosasaur Globidens, the odd round toothed shell crusher. Here too is the 40 foot Elasmosaurus platyurus discovered in 1867 by a young Army doctor Theophilus Turner which became famous when Edward Drinker Cope published his description with its head at the wrong end. Like the best of the great gentlemen geologists of the 19th century, Everhart (who is Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University) has an uncanny ability to interpret lost worlds. He begins nearly every chapter with a short fiction in which he describes a scenario involving the creatures he will then describe in detail. This skillful blend of story and science using actual specimens, such as the famous "fish-in-a-fish" Xiphactinus audax that was fossilized with its last meal Gillicus arcuatus in its belly, bring the Cretaceous seas vividly to life. If a book liberally sprinkled with scholarly references seems daunting at first, rest assured that the narrative strength is such that - rather like reading a great Russian novel - the lay reader quickly learns to glide over the more complex and unpronounceable citations and come away with a sense of wonder and amazement at their visit to Cretaceous SeaWorld. J.P. O'Neill Author - The Great New England Sea Serpent -

Oceans Of Kansas

A fantastic story of what are now the Great Plains states, when they were covered by the Western Interior Seaway of the Late Cretaceous, some 65 to 90 or so million years ago. This book relates the fascinating expeditions of the great "bone hunters" during the early days of modern paleontology, when Kansas and other interior states were out in the comparative hinterlands, and the jouneys of these rugged individualists could occasionally be fraught with hardship. They were rewarded with an incredible array of some of the fabulous creatures of antiquity; giant mosasaurs, ancient turtles the size of automobiles, great flying reptiles, early toothed birds of the seas, and giant sharks, all found in the chalk beds that bear mute testimony to the existence of this ancient and wondrous place from a time out of mind. The book is well illustrated, loads of pictures of the fossils in full reconstruction and disarticulated. The color plates by Dan Varner are maybe too few, but they're stunning, to say the very least. The text may be a bit weighty for only the youngest of enthusiasts, but all others who have an interest in the great marine fossils of the Mesozoic should definitely get their hands on this book. I already consider it a classic; it really is that good.

Finally, a science book that reads like . . . they all should.

This is really a nice book. It is a throrough, comprehensive and up-to-date review of life in the interior sea - with chapters on sharks, fish, elasmosaurs, pliosaurs mosasaurs, and more. Unlike the other paleontology books I've ordered, including some from Indianna University Press, this one is not so technical as to alienate the casual reader - like myself. It's an interesting - and very enjoyable - way to learn about a scientific subject. I wish more of these books were written this way.