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Re: paleonet Second hadrosaur from the Smoky Hill Chalk



I once worked on a hadrosaur from the Moreno Shale in California.  
There are, as you probably no, a number of, and maybe many,  
hadrosaurs from marine deposits. I was surprised to hear about the  
nodosaurs. Haven't been keeping up on that. There are so many  
hadrosaurs from marine deposits that some, in the old days, suggested  
that they might be marine. They must have, at any rate, spent time at  
the seashore or in rivers near their mouth. Thanks for the news. I  
guess with just a string of vertebrae it cannot be identified closely  
but congratulations.

P.S. I just bought your new book. Looked exciting. I led collections  
of the marine fossils at Red Bird Wyoming. First took Ken Carpenter  
there in fact. Great stuff from the Interior Seaway.

Judith Harris (formerly Van Couvering)


On Jun 20, 2005, at 11:48 AM, Mike Everhart wrote:

> All,
> Earlier this month, a friend of mine found a portion of the tail (9  
> articulated vertebrae) of a dinosaur in the Smoky Hill Chalk. I was  
> with him at the time and, although disappointed that I hadn't  
> discovered the remains myself, I was pleased to be a part of their  
> recovery:
> http://www.oceansofkansas.com/new-dino.html
>
> This is only the sixth dinosaur specimen (and second hadrosaur) to  
> come from this marine formation in more than a 130 years (O.C.  
> Marsh found the first hadrosaur remains there in 1871). All of the  
> others are nodosaurs, including the type of /Niobrarasaurus  
> coleii/.  The occurrence of dinosaur remains far from shore in the  
> Smoky Hill Chalk is a bit of a puzzle because of the distance  
> (hundreds of miles) between where they have been found and what was  
> thought to be the nearest coast (east) of the Western Interior Sea  
> at the time. They must have floated for a long time before reaching  
> their final resting place. In this case, burial was somewhat  
> hastened by the intervention of a large shark. It's possible that  
> these and other remains were carried out to sea in tangled mats of  
> trees and vegetation during floods....
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Everhart
> Adjunct Curator of Paleontology
> Sternberg Museum of Natural History
> Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS
> www.oceansofkansas.com
>
>
>
>