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The Second Mosasaur Meeting was held May 3-6, 2007 Sternberg Museum of Natural History Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, USA Copyright © 2006-2010 by Mike Everhart
Web Page created June 9, 2006; Last updated 02/14/2010
Left: The exhibit specimen of Tylosaurus proriger (FHSM VP-3) at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. Discovered by Charles W. Sternberg, son of George F. Sternberg, and collected by the two of them in 1926. |
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The Proceedings of the Second Mosasaur Meeting (2008) edited by Michael J. Everhart, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, have now been published. The contents of the volume, including the naming of two new species, are shown online here: The 172 page volume is available for purchase at the Sternberg Museum store for $19.95 plus tax. (Shipping per Priority Mail is $4.80) Credit card purchases can made through Brad Penka: Phone: 785-628-5569 or Email: Bpenka (at) fhsu.edu You can also write for more information to Brad Penka, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, 3000 Sternberg Drive, Hays, Kansas 67601-2006. DOWNLOADABLE ABSTRACT BOOKLET HERE (500 KB) - The First Mosasaur Meeting, Maastricht, The Netherlands, May, 2004 |
By all accounts, the First Mosasaur Meeting in Maastricht, The Netherlands (May, 2004) was a grand success. At the closing banquet, the idea of having a Second Mosasaur Meeting was discussed and it was agreed that the Kansas, and the Sternberg Museum, would be the logical place for the next meeting because of the large number of mosasaur remains collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk and their historical significance.
The Second Mosasaur Meeting was held at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays,
Kansas, May 3-6, 2007. The meeting was hosted by the Sternberg Museum and Fort Hays State
University, and supported by Hays Convention and visitors (see Credits below). There were
more than 50 participants at the meeting and 34 papers were presented over a three day
period. Twenty of that group went on the May 6 field trip to a locality in the Smoky Hill
Chalk in Gove County. In spite of threatening weather, the trip went as planned and
everyone got a lot of exercise.
MEETING ABSTRACTS: Downloadable PDF file (500 KB)
The Third Mosasaur Meeting will be held in Paris, France, in 2010.
The design for the Second Mosasaur Meeting T-shirt and the cover of the Proceedings was done by Sydney Prentiss and published in the University Geological Survey of Kansas, volume IV (1898).
Everhart, M.J. (ed.). 2008. Proceedings of the Second Mosasaur Meeting. Fort Hays Studies Special Issue 3, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, 172 pp - Published Fall, 2008.
Citations for the published papers are HERE
| Late in the evening after the second day of the meeting (Friday,
May 4), a large tornado struck the town of Greensburg, Kansas, about 95 miles (150 km) due
south of Hays. Fortunately the town had some warning and only ten people were killed. The
town, however, was nearly totally destroyed. You can get some idea of the destruction
from photos posted on this website. Fortunately, the storm moved to the northeast and
missed Hays and most other towns in the central part of the state. RIGHT: "Cumulus mammatus" storm clouds east of Hays, morning of May 5, 2007. (Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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MEETING
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The man in the hot seat: Organizer Mike Everhart getting ready for
the opening session of the Second Mosasaur Meeting, May 3, 2007. (Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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That's one BIG fish! Dirk Cornelissen, Louis Verding and
Veronika Michalik relaxing in front of the famous "Fish within
a fish" specimen of Xiphactinus audax. (Photo at left provided by Dirk Cornelisson, Hasselt, Belgium) |
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Mike Everhart, John Jagt, Eric Mulder and Louis Verding posing in
the collections area. (Photo at left provided by Dirk Cornelisson, Hasselt, Belgium) |
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Dirk Cornelisson, Mike Everhart and Eric Mulder posing for
pictures in the collections area. (Photo at left provided by Dirk Cornelisson, Hasselt, Belgium) |
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Eric Mulder inspecting the teeth of the beast... a reconstruction
of the very large skull (1.5 m) of a Tylosaurus proriger specimen from Texas. The
remains were collected, prepared, cast and assembled (and displayed at the meeting) by Triebold Paleontology of Woodland Park,
Colorado. (Photo at left provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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Break time... While the talks were very interesting, so were the
morning and afternoon breaks when everyone got to talk mosasaurs. (Photo at left provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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Break time - Ethan and Riley Schulth (Cobert, TX) talk to Amy
Sheldon. At left are Anne Schulp (standing) and John Jagt (sitting) of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht in Maastricht,
The Netherlands. Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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More break time conversations. (Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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LEFT: Gretchen Gurtler and Gorden Bell discussing mosasaurs. RIGHT: Gretchen Gurtler examining the Sternberg's specimen of Ectenosaurus clidastoides. (Photos by Bill Mueller, Lubbock, Texas) |
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On Saturday, before the closing banquet, we assembled the group
for a photo (sort of like herding cats). In 2004 (Maastricht), although the group
was smaller, the space we assembled in at the museum for the picture was a bit cramped for the photographers.
This time, the group was almost too large to get into one area to photograph. (Photo at left provided by Mike Everhart, at right provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany; both taken by Mark Kellerman of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History - Thanks, Mark!) |
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LEFT: One of the tables at the closing banquet. Note the
watchful eyes of George F. and Charles H. Sternberg (Picture on the back wall). (Photo provided by Alessandro Palci, Modena, Italy) |
FIELD TRIP
The field trip for the Second Mosasaur Meeting was in doubt due to the previous rainy weather and the likelihood of having to bring the bus in several miles on a muddy road. A thunderstorm had passed through the locality in eastern Gove County about 11 PM on Saturday evening and the local weather was marginal when we left the Sternberg Museum at 9:00 AM on Sunday morning. Then it rained on us for the first 40 miles or so as we went westward to southeastern Gove County. For a while it looked like we would have to cancel the field trip, turn around and come back to the museum. However, the rain stopped a few miles before we had to turn off on a dirt road and we made it to the site. The road into the site was still muddy enough that we had to park the bus along the main road and walk in about a half mile (there were no complaints!). The chalk had been washed clean by the rain but we were disappointed in not being able to collect much (sharks teeth, fish tails and a few mosasaur scraps). Although we could see and hear the thunderstorms a few miles to the east of us, the day stayed cloudy and cool (actually very similar to our field trip to the quarry at Maastricht in 2004).
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This narrow, north-south trending canyon was the first chalk that
many of the field trip participants were able to access. The canyon opens into a much
larger exposure to the north (top of the picture). (Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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More chalk... Although this area of Kansas usually gets less than
20 inches of rainfall, much of it arrives as heavy downpours in thunderstorms. The
chalk is relatively soft and erodes easily. (Photo provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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From left to right: Masahiro Tanimoto, Timon Bullard, Michael
Caldwell and Alessandro Palci. (Photo provided by Alessandro Palci. Modena, Italy, but it was obviously taken by someone else... in this case, Takuya Konishi) |
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UPPER LEFT: Mike Everhart talks to several of the field trip
members. UPPER RIGHT: Mike Everhart and Takuya Konishi. LOWER LEFT: Mike Everhart, Judyth Sassoon, Takuya Konishi and Alessandro Palci. LOWER RIGHT: Long walk back to the bus; Mike Everhart and Takuya Konishi (Photos at left by Masahiro Tanimoto, Nabari, Japan) |
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From left to right: Talking fossils in the chalk; Masahiro
Tanimoto, Takuya Konishi, Mike Everhart and Judyth Sassoon. (Photo provided by Alessandro Palci, Modena, Italy) |
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UPPER LEFT: Going down into the gully... topsoil here is not very
thick and the chalk is exposed to within a foot or so of the prairie vegetation. UPPER RIGHT: It didn't take long for 20 people to disappear into the chalk gullies on the site. Fortunately, all returned. LOWER LEFT: More chalk LOWER RIGHT: Masahiro Tanimoto taking a better look (Photos at left by Bob Levin, Smith Center, Kansas) |
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UPPER LEFT: Good shot of the way that the chalk erodes UPPER RIGHT: Lunch time at the bus LOWER LEFT: Bill Mueller talking to the bus driver LOWER RIGHT: Lunchtime... Alessandro Palci and Masahiro Tanimoto getting ready to head out for the afternoon (Photos at left by Bob Levin, Smith Center, Kansas) |
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UPPER LEFT: Typical chalk erosion features UPPER RIGHT: Judyth Sassoon LOWER LEFT: Alessandro Palci and Takuya Konishi LOWER RIGHT: Small shark vertebrae (Everhart) (Photos at left by Bob Levin, Smith Center, Kansas) |
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Another shot of the lunch break and more scenes in the chalk (with
Gretchen Gurtler) (Photos by Bill Mueller, Lubbock, Texas) |
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Even though the chalk appears relatively desolate, there are a
number of plants that are well adapted to growing on it. Their roots sometimes locate and
damage buried remains (root rot). Broom snakeweed at right. (Photos provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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Spring flowers were just coming into bloom. Soapweed (Yucca) at
right. (Photos provided by Christian Neumann, Berlin, Germany) |
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CREDITS: A big thank you to Dirk Cornelisson, Bob Levin, Bill Mueller, Christian Neumann, Alessandro Palci and Masahiro Tanimoto for providing pictures used on this web page. I would also like to thank Dr. Jerry Choate and all the staff of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History for their support before and during the meeting. Janet Kuhn and staff of the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau supported the registration process during the meeting, and provided transportation to and from the museum. The Bakery Shop provided the wonderful refreshments at the breaks, the lunches on Thursday and Friday and the box lunches on the Sunday field trip (no one went hungry!). Chartwells dining services at Fort Hays State University catered the banquet. Gella's Diner and The Lb Brewing Company provided the perfect place for an after-hours mixer. All American Tours, Hays, provided the transportation for the field trip. Shirts Plus of Derby, Kansas, printed the T-shirts and Kens Printing Center, Derby, Kansas, assembled the Abstract Booklet. It was an outstanding cooperative effort for an outstanding meeting!
