south side, Saline River (Cretaceous of the United States)

Where: Ellis County, Kansas (38.9° N, 99.3° W: paleocoordinates 40.7° N, 65.3° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Fort Hays Limestone Member (Niobrara Formation), Early/Lower Coniacian (89.3 - 85.8 Ma)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; poorly lithified limestone and calcareous shale

• "The Fort Hays Limestone was deposited [within]... the Western Interior Sea": environment is "mid-ocean, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest coast."
• the formation "ranges from 45 to 80 ft. (17-24 m) in thickness and consists of several relatively resistant beds of chalky limestone separated by thin layers of chalky shale." Specimen is within a "limestone matrix."

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Fort Hays State Museum (FHSM) specimen

Primary reference: M. J. Everhart. 2005. Earliest record of the genus Tylosaurus (Squamata; Mosasauridae) from the Fort Hays Limestone (Lower Coniacian) of western Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 108(3):149-155 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/F. Aspromonte]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 62792: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 27.07.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Squamata - Mosasauridae
Tylosaurus sp.
Tylosaurus sp. Marsh 1872 mosasaur
FHSM VP-2297, vertebrae, coracoid