What is the Smoky Hill Chalk?
Q: What is the Smoky Hill Chalk?
A: The Smoky Hill Chalk is a fossil-rich geological formation known for its well-preserved marine reptiles and located in northwest Kansas and southeastern Nebraska.
Q: What kind of fossils can be found in the Smoky Hill Chalk?
A: The Smoky Hill Chalk is known for fossils of marine reptiles, large bony fish, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, flightless marine birds, and turtles.
Q: Who are Charles H. Sternberg and his son George?
A: Charles H. Sternberg and his son George are dinosaur hunters who collected many of the most well-known specimens of marine reptile fossils from the Smoky Hill Chalk.
Q: What is Xiphactinus audax?
A: Xiphactinus audax is a giant bony fish found in the Smoky Hill Chalk that is famous for being collected with the skeleton of another bony fish, Gillicus arcuatus, inside its own skeleton.
Q: Who collected the unique fossil of Xiphactinus audax with another fish inside?
A: The unique fossil of Xiphactinus audax with the skeleton of another fish, Gillicus arcuatus, inside was collected by Charles H. Sternberg's son George.
Q: When was an excellent skeleton of Xiphactinus audax collected?
A: An excellent skeleton of Xiphactinus audax was collected by Edward Drinker Cope during the late nineteenth century heyday of American paleontology.
Q: What is a conservation Lagerstätte?
A: A conservation Lagerstätte is a geological formation that contains a large number of well-preserved fossils. The Smoky Hill Chalk is an example of an Upper Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte.
