Blog
Save
Email
Print
Share"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.
See also:
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.
For more information about the title Oceans Of Kansas: A Natural History Of The Western Interior Sea (Life of the Past), read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:
Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep — Sharks and dinosaurs, dinosaurs and sharks, we find them both alien and awe-inspiring, at once utterly inhuman and somehow irresistibly compelling. ... > read more
Sea Dragons: Predators Of The Prehistoric Oceans — In the days when dinosaurs dominated the earth, their marine counterparts-every bit as big and ferocious-reigned supreme in prehistoric seas. In this ... > read more
Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California — One of the most geologically complex and diverse states, California spent much of the age of dinosaurs under water. While most of the fossils found ... > read more
After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past) — Perhaps nudged over the evolutionary cliff by a giant boloid striking the earth, the incredible and fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs ... > read moreRecommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
more 