Smoky Hill Research Articles

Tylosaurus kansasensis, a new species of tylosaurine (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas, USA

AbstractTylosaurus kansasensis sp. nov. is described herein on the basis of thirteen specimens collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk (upper Coniacian) of western Kansas, USA. The new species, originally designated Tylosaurus n. sp., co-occurred with T. nepaeolicus and exhibits a number of primitive characters that place it in a basal position in the mosasaur phylogeny. Among the key differences separating this species from other tylosaurines are a shortened, more rounded pre-dental process of the premaxilla, a distinctive quadrate lacking an infrastapedial process, and a parietal foramen located adjacent to the frontal-parietal suture.

A new nodosaur specimen (Dinosauria: Nodosauridae) from the Smoky Hill Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of western Kansas

The right ulna and radius of a small nodosaur were recovered from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member (Upper Santonian) of the Niobrara Formation in October, 2000. Based on the similarity of the specimen in comparison with the holotype of Niobrarasaurus coleii, and the relatively small size of the remains, the bones are considered to be those of a juvenile N. coleii. The presence of two parallel scratch marks on the distal shaft of the radius, and the partially digested appearance of the proximal and distal ends of both bones, suggest that the lower limb had been detached from the carcass as the result of scavenging, most likely by the large lamniform shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli. Although the remains of terrestrial vertebrates are not unknown from sediments deposited in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea, additional discoveries are infrequent and valuable sources of information regarding the terrestrial fauna of the time.

Occurrence of Ptychodus mammillaris (Elasmobranchii) in the Fairport Chalk Member of the Carlile Shale (Upper Cretaceous) of Ellis County, Kansas

Although more vertebrate species have been reported from the Fairport Chalk Member (Middle Turonian) than from the overlying Blue Hill Shale and Codell Sandstone members (upper Middle Turonian) of the Carlile Shale in Kansas, the number is relatively small compared to that from the deeper water fauna of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member (Upper Coniacian to Lower Campanian) of the Niobrara Chalk. Ptychodontids are poorly represented in the Fairport Chalk, both in number of specimens and species. Here we report the first occurrence of Ptychodus mammillaris from a single tooth collected in the Fairport Chalk of Ellis County. This specimen adds new data concerning the faunal diversity of the Western Interior Sea during the Middle Turonian.

The first record of the lamniform shark genus, Johnlongia, from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous), western Kansas

We describe the first occurrence of the Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Johnlongia sp. (Elasmobranchii: Odontaspididae), from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk in Trego County, Kansas. The specimen, a small isolated tooth, is morphologically unique and may represent a new taxon within the genus. The tooth is from the Upper Coniacian portion of the Smoky Hill Chalk, and represents the stratigraphically youngest Johnlongia specimen in the world. The addition of Johnlongia sp. increases the total number of lamniform species reported from the Smoky Hill Chalk to eight.

First records of plesiosaur remains in the lower Smoky Hill Chalk Member (Upper Coniacian) of the Niobrara Formation in western Kansas

Although plesiosaurs are known to occur in the Upper Cretaceous Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation, their remains are uncommon, rarely complete and unequally distributed in the unit. There are only three reasonably complete plesiosaur skeletons (all Dolichorhynchops osborni) known from the Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas. All three are from the upper one-third (Early Campanian) of the chalk. Other remains are fragmentary and, in most cases, consist of body parts that could have been readily removed by predators or scavengers. Many of these specimens have teeth marks or appear to be partially digested. In spite of observations to the contrary by Williston and others, reliable stratigraphic and locality information for museum specimens exists only for plesiosaur remains in the upper portions of the Smoky Hill Chalk (Santonian - Lower Campanian). Recent discoveries reported here suggest that plesiosaurs were present throughout the deposition of the chalk, albeit in small numbers.

A Human Effigy Pipe of the Smoky Hill Phase

A human effigy pipe was recovered from 14RY8, a Smoky Hill phase site located on a tributary of Fancy Creek in Tuttle Creek Lake in Kansas. Two radiocarbon dates from the site average 1050 ± 145 B.P. The pipe‘s human face has finely incised lines that may represent face painting, tattooing or scarification. Such pipes are rare in the Central Plains Tradition and this one increases our database on them.

Resolving Taxonomy and Historic Distribution for Conservation of Rare Great Plains Fishes: Hybognathus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Eastern Colorado Basins

Abstract Similar morphology and confused historical taxonomy of Hybognathus hankinsoni (brassy minnow) and Hybognathus placitus (plains minnow) have made determination of their historic distributions and conservation status unclear in eastern Colorado basins. We developed logistic regression models from morphometric measurements to predict species identity of Hybognathus collections from Colorado and adjacent counties (n = 1154 specimens in 134 lots). A model based on orbit diameter, standard length, and eye position correctly predicted 98% of the specimens examined and 100% of the museum lots. Hybognathus hankinsoni have larger eyes centered on a horizontal line through the tip of the snout, whereas H. placitus have smaller eyes centered above the tip of the snout. The two species were historically sympatric in the Platte, Republican, and Smoky Hill River basins, whereas H. placitus was allopatric in the Arkansas River basin. The taxonomic characters defined here will allow accurate identification of fut...

New Data on Cranial Measurements and Body Length of the Mosasaur, Tylosaurus nepaeolicus (Squamata; Mosasauridae), from the Niobrara Formation of Western Kansas

Tylosaurus nepaeolicus (Cope 1874) is one of the least well known of the five species of mosasaurs that are recognized from the lower Smoky Hill Chalk Member (upper Coniacian) of the Niobrara Formation in western Kansas. In describing the type material, Cope stated that this species was one-third or less the size of T. proriger (Cope 1869), a species that appeared during the Santonian and is well represented in the middle and upper chalk. Additional data provided by Russell from a review of specimens in the American Museum of Natural History and the Yale Peabody Museum showed that most T. nepaeolicus material is somewhat larger than the type specimen, but is significantly smaller than adult T. proriger specimens. Measurements of two additional T. nepaeolicus skulls, an articulated series of Tylosaurus sp. vertebrae and other material in the Sternberg Museum of Natural History suggest that this species approached 8–9 m in size by the end of the Coniacian and was approximately the same size as a large T. proriger reported from the lower Santonian. Although time and other morphological features separate T. nepaeolicus from T. proriger, the two species are closer in size than previously reported.

Associated Tooth Set of the Late Cretaceous Lamniform Shark, Scapanorhynchus raphiodon (Mitsukurinidae), from the Niobrara Chalk of Western Kansas

Abstract The occurrence of the first associated tooth set of the Late Cretaceous Lamniform shark, Scapanorhynchus raphiodon (Mitsukurinidae), is described from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk in Gove County, Kansas. The specimen, which consists of five small teeth, represents the most recent (Late Coniacian) occurrence of the species in Kansas. Morphological variation observed in the tooth set confirms the presence of heterodonty in the dentition of this taxon. By comparing the teeth of S. raphiodon with those of the extant mitsukurinid shark (Mitsukurina owstoni), the total body length of the fossil individual is estimated conservatively to be 59 cm. Similar to M. owstoni, S. raphiodon possibly fed on small fishes and squid, but this idea is yet to be confirmed.

Tylosaurus ivoensis: a giant mosasaur from the early Campanian of Sweden

ABSTRACTThe nominal species Mosasaurus ivoensis from the latest early Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin in southern Sweden, is redescribed and assigned to the tylosaurine genus Tylosaurus on the basis of its dental and vertebral morphology. A partial skeleton (KUVP 1024) from the late Coniacian to earliest Campanian Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation in western Kansas, USA, was previously referred to “M”. ivoensis. Nevertheless, its marginal teeth are markedly different, both in size and morphology, from those of topotypic T. ivoensis.Examination of type specimens and topotypic material of the nominal tylosaurines Hainosaurus pembinensis from the late early Campanian of Manitoba, Canada, H. gaudryi from the late Santonian or early Campanian of northwestern France, and H. lonzeensis from the Coniacian or Santonian of Belgium, indicates that all three may be Tylosaurus.The utility of isolated tooth-crowns in mosasaur taxonomy has been hampered by the often poor quality of the published illustrations of these fossils in combination with poor stratigraphic control. All Swedish remains of T. ivoensis, including 172 marginal teeth, 6 pterygoid teeth, several jawbone fragments and 12 vertebrae, were collected from a narrow stratigraphic interval corresponding to the highest biozone in the German eight-fold division of the early Campanian, providing the first good insight into the intraspecific dental variation in a tylosaurine mosasaur.

Revisions to the Biostratigraphy of the Mosasauridae (Squamata) in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk (Late Cretaceous) of Kansas

Abstract The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk was deposited in the Western Interior Sea during a span of about five million years extending from the upper Coniacian through the lower Campanian. Coincidentally, this period also encompasses much of the early evolution and radiation of the family Mosasauridae. Thousands of mosasaur specimens have been collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of western Kansas since the first Yale College Scientific Expedition in 1870. Early workers viewed the entire Smoky Hill Chalk Member as the “Pteranodon beds” and were not able to provide accurate stratigraphic information. Even though mosasaurs are represented by numerous complete and well preserved specimens, the ranges of the various species could not be defined further without better stratigraphic data. In 1898, S. W. Williston first described the general distribution of mosasaurs within the Rudistes and Hesperornis beds of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member. Seventy years later, D. A. Russell grouped mosasau...

Inferring Stratigraphic Position of Fossil Vertebrates from the Niobrara Chalk of Western Kansas

The stratigraphy of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas is well understood as a result of the work of Hattin (1982) and Stewart (1988). Marker units identified by Hattin (1982) allow quick determination of the stratigraphic position of a specific outcrop. This study demonstrates that it is now possible to determine the stratigraphic positions of specimens from locality data, thus permitting one to infer stratigraphic position of specimens collected long ago. This technique is particularly useful in the upper half of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member, where biostratigraphy is not informative. The stratigraphic distribution of the type skulls of the pterosaur Pteranodon is examined as an example of the procedure, which in turn demonstrates that the procedure can have the power to reject hypotheses. Inferring stratigraphic positions of fossil vertebrates may be useful in further studies of the large collections of fossil vertebrates from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member. In addition, examination of the stratigraphic distribution of outcrops of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member in western Kansas suggests that most of the fossil vertebrates collected from the member came from a rather restricted stratigraphic interval between Marker Units 15 and 20.

Enhancing influenza immunization. Postcard and telephone reminders and the challenge of immunization site shift.

To determine if postcard and telephone reminders increased the rate of influenza immunization of Medicare beneficiaries. Before and after trial (postcard reminders) with systematically allocated control group (telephone reminder intervention). A semirural family practice residency program. All 475 noninstitutionalized persons older than 65 years who had received at least 1 office service in the previous 2 years. In September 1996, each of 475 patients received a postcard urging prompt influenza immunization. Those not responding within 1 month were systematically allocated either to a group receiving further telephone contact or to a control group. At the time of telephone contact, any offered information about influenza immunization received outside the Smoky Hill Family Practice Center, Salina, Kan, was recorded. We measured the percentage of change in practice-administered influenza immunizations compared with the baseline rate of the preceding 2 years; the difference in immunization rates between the telephone intervention group and controls; and the number of patients contacted by telephone who reported receiving influenza immunization at a site other than the Family Practice Center. Twenty-eight percent of patients who received a postcard obtained office influenza immunizations within 1 month, but no additional immunizations could be attributed to the telephone intervention. Thirty-five percent of patients contacted by telephone reported receiving influenza immunization at a site other than the Family Practice Center. The postcard intervention was associated with a significant increase in the office immunization rate. This increase may have been confounded by "site shift" in which individuals came to the office for an immunization that they might otherwise have received at other community sites.

Ceramics and Community Structure: A Reanalysis of Material from the Minneapolis Site (140T5)

The Minneapolis site (140T5), a late prehistoric Smoky Hill phase site, has been interpreted as a village since the first excavations there in 1934. This congregation of at least 24 mounds has figured prominently in discussions of Smoky Hill phase and Central Plains tradition social organization, and has been mentioned by several authors hoping to draw parallels between the ethnographic record of the Pawnee and the lifeways of Central Plains tradition groups. Other authors have proposed that some Central Plains tradition multi-house sites are not villages but collections of noncontemporaneous houses. This notion is tested here through a reanalysis of ceramics from Houses 1-3 at the Minneapolis site. Results are suggestive rather than conclusive, but the study does reveal several reasons why house assemblages should be analyzed and reported individually.

Rephotographing Alexander Gardner's 1867 "Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division"

The photographic series made by Alexander Gardner in Kansas between mid September and late October 1867 is the earliest and most diverse systematic photo-documentation of the American West. The Kansas series, originally titled Across the Continent on the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, is an early part of a later series titled Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The entire series systematically photo-documented the surveyed railroad line which began at the Mississippi River in St. Louis and ended at the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, California. The Kansas series, consisting of several hundred views between Kansas City and Fort Wallace, in Western Kansas, documented the initial impact of the new railroad settlements on the native prairies. This was particularly true along the Smoky Hill River route where construction was in progress as shown in Gardner's pictures. This series makes an especially valuable source for a rephotographic series to detail visually the transformation of the Kansas landscape by the early European settlements along the railroad. The picture samples presented here along the Smoky Hill route were made using traditional rephotographic techniques of repeating the original views from as close as possible to Gardner's original vantage point, at the same day of the year, and at the same time of day. This offers both old and new views with the same lighting and environmental conditions to compare and contrast the subjects 130 years apart. The documentation of the present survey also will make rephotographic surveys of the series possible in the future.

Stratigraphic Record of the Late Cretaceous Lamniform Shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli (Agassiz), in Kansas

The Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli (Agassiz), occurs in the Graneros Shale, Lincoln Limestone, Jetmore Chalk, Pfeifer Shale, Fairport Chalk, Fort Hays Limestone, and Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas. The crown heights of anterior teeth of geologically older C. mantelli generally are smaller than those of geologically younger ones, but taxonomic division at the subspecific level cannot be made. Cretoxyrhina mantelli is thought to prefer offshore environments.

Selected Records of Stream Fishes from the Kansas River Basin in Kansas

During 1992, we sampled fishes at 30 sites in the Kansas River and Smoky Hill River (as far west as Salina). Following this project (and the floods of 1993), we visited 30 sites in 1994 and 1995 along the Smoky Hill River (from Salina west through Wallace County), the Saline River, Solomon River, North Fork Solomon River, and South Fork Solomon River. Information from 77 additional samples was obtained by field crews from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) and Fort Hays State University (FHSU) in 1994 and 1995. Samples were obtained with seines or electrofishing equipment. Fish were identified and counted, either in the field (mostly larger specimens) or in the museum, to determine relative abundances of species at each site. Voucher specimens for these records are housed in the Collection of Fishes at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (formerly the Museum of the High Plains; MHP) at FHSU, Hays, Kansas. Also included in this summary are records from recently sorted collections at the Sternberg Museum. Computerized records (FishGopher, Cornell University) of the fish collections at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum (KU) and University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) were checked during our studies. This report summarizes records for nine species. Seventy-one additional county records for the maps compiled by Cross and Collins (1995) were listed in the newsletter of the Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (Eberle and others, 1995).

The Stability of the Oriole Hybrid Zone in Western Kansas

In the Great Plains of North America a number of species of birds that breed in woodland edge in the east are replaced by western counterparts (Rising 1983a). In many instances (Colaptes, Passerina, Pheucticus, Pipilo, and Icterus) the counterpart congeners apparently hybridize, often rather commonly, where their ranges are in contact. It is widely postulated that these eastern and western counterpart taxa differentiated in allopatry during the Pleistocene (Mengel 1970), and today are interbreeding following rather recent secondary contact (Rising 1983a). The consequences of this hybridization are not clear, but may be clarified by long-term studies (Selander 1965, Yang and Selander 1968, Rising 1983b, Moore and Buchanan 1985). The eastern Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) and the western Bullock's Oriole (I. bullocki) are among the best studied of these east-west species pairs (Rising 1983a, 1983b). They hybridize in a zone of apparent secondary contact that runs from southwestern Alberta south through northeastern Montana and western North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In 1965 and 1966 I collected orioles in riparian woodlands (principally cottonwoods [Populus]) from 14 sites along four river systems in western Kansas, the Republican, Smoky Hill, Arkansas, and Cimarron, that run essentially west to east through the oriole hybrid zone (Rising 1970). In 1976 and 1978, I recollected orioles from six of the sites that I had previously collected in the 1960s, along the Cimarron and Smoky Hill rivers, as well as a sample of Bullock's Orioles from along the Cimarron River near Kenton, Oklahoma, on the Oklahoma-New Mexico border (Rising 1983b) to serve as a western reference sample. Here I report on orioles that I collected in 1992 and 1993 from the same sites, shown in Figure 1, that I had collected in the 1970s; in 1992, I also collected a sample of Baltimore Orioles from central (Rice Co.) Kansas, to serve as an eastern reference sample. These three sets of collections, taken over a nearly 30-year span, allow me to directly assess the changes of oriole hybridization in western Kansas. METHODS

Fossilized regurgitate from Smoky Hill Member of Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Kansas, USA

Chalky strata of the Cretaceous of Kansas have yielded many fossilized specimens of digestive waste derived primarily from fish. The fine-grained matrix of these specimens is composed predominantly of fluorapatite that originated mainly as finely macerated vertebrate remains. This paper discusses both coiled and non-coiled fish coprolites of presumably piscine origin but focuses on an unusual coprolite-like mass that contains bony material, cirriped plates, and coccoliths. Lack of digestive etching of cirriped plates, nearly articulated arrangement of plates from the cirriped peduncle, abundance of coccoliths, and irregular shape suggest origin as a regurgitate, probably from the ray-like chondrichthyan Ptychodus.

Selachians from the Fort Hays Limestone Member of the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous), Ellis County, Kansas

Vertebrates from the Fort Hays Limestone Member (uppermost Turonian?-Middle Coniacian) of the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk in Kansas are poorly known. Six selachian taxa from the member in Ellis County, Kansas, are described herein: Ptychodus mortoni, cf. Scapanorhynchus sp., Cretolamna appendiculata, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Paranomotodon sp., and Squalicorax falcatus. These selachians probably occupied the highest positions in the food chain during the maximum invasion of the Niobrara sea. Because the gradationally overlying Smoky Hill Chalk contains a rich vertebrate fauna, including P. mortoni, C. appendiculata, C. mantelli, and S. falcatus, other fossil vertebrates may eventually be discovered in the Fort Hays Limestone.