Oceans of Kansas (book)

Oceans of Kansas: A natural history of the western interior sea is a book by Michael J. Everhart, Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History and past President of the Kansas Academy of Science. It was published in 2005 by Indiana University Press. It has an award-winning,[1][2] concomitant website entitled Oceans of Kansas Paleontology.[3] A revised, updated, and expanded edition was published in 2017. It is part of the life of the past series.[4]

Oceans of Kansas: A natural history of the western interior sea
AuthorMichael J. Everhart
LanguageEnglish
GenreReference
PublisherIndiana University Press
Publication date
2005
Pages344 pp
ISBN0-253-34547-2
OCLC56982260
560/.457/09781 22
LC ClassQE766 .E89 2005

Summary

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In Oceans of Kansas Everhart discusses the state of the land during the Late Cretaceous and earlier, when the area was covered with the marine waters of the Western Interior Seaway, particularly focusing on the record of the Niobrara Cycle of the Seaway as exposed in central Northwestern Kansas (e.g., Trego and Gove Counties). The geologic record shows that ancient lifeforms such as marine reptiles, pteranodons, and toothed birds inhabited the general area both in and out of the water. Everhart also covers the discovery of the fossils and geographic records as well as the competition between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh to collect them.

Reception

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Oceans of Kansas has received multiple critical reviews,[5][6] with Jeffrey V. Yule stating that "Oceans of Kansas offers a well researched and often engaging account of the paleobiology of the Western Interior Seaway...".[7] Jonathan Hendricks noted that while the book's "intended audience is not entirely clear... as a needed summary of our knowledge about the fossils found in the Cretaceous rocks of western Kansas and elsewhere in the Great Plains, Everhart's book is a success."[8]

Notes

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  1. ^ The Editors (27 May 2003). "2003 Sci/Tech Web Awards: Anthropology and Paleontology". Scientific American. 288. {{cite journal}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Staff (1 August 2003). "NetWatch: Best of the Web in science". Science. 301 (5633): 573. doi:10.1126/science.301.5633.573d.
  3. ^ Intute Staff. "Oceans of Kansas Paleontology - Full Record Details". Intute. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012.
  4. ^ "Life of the Past". nhbs.com.
  5. ^ Bayless, Mark K. The Quarterly Review of Biology Vol. 81, No. 1. The University of Chicago Press, 2006. pp. 57-58.M
  6. ^ O'keefe, F. Robin. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Vol. 26, No. 1. 2006, pp. 228-229.
  7. ^ Yule, Jefferey V. (2007). "Book Review: Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea". Copeia. 2007 (2): 498–500. doi:10.1643/0045-8511(2007)7[498:OOKANH]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 85963060.
  8. ^ Hendricks, Jonathan (2006). "Book Review of Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea by Michael J. Everhart". Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 16 (2). University of Nebraska: 203.
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