CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstracts are due: March 19, 2010

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION INFORMATION

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Abstract format - (Times New Roman font, 12 pt, ~250 words):

Sample (from 2009)

Everhart, M. J. Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University. NOTE ON A PLESIOSAUR SPECIMEN FROM THE KIOWA SHALE (EARLY CRETACEOUS; MIDDLE ALBIAN) OF KIOWA COUNTY, KANSAS. The well-preserved, nearly complete left ischium of a small plesiosaur was collected by the author from the basal Kiowa Shale near Belvidere, Kansas in August, 2008. It occurred approximately 0.5 m below the first major bentonite in the lower Kiowa Shale (Early Cretaceous; Upper Albian; Venezoliceras kiowanum Zone), and about 4 m above the basal Champion Shell Bed. The specimen (FHSM VP-17302) represents a plesiosaur that was 3-4 m in length. Another ischium (FHSM VP-2984) is similar in size but appears to represent a different taxon. Plesiosaur remains are the most common of any of the marine tetrapods from the Kiowa Shale and have been collected from Kiowa and Clark counties since the 1890s. More recently their remains also have been discovered in McPherson County. While the remains of these early plesiosaurs are well-represented in the collections of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History (KUVP) and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (FHSM), few of the specimens are reported in the literature. The type specimen of Plesiosaurus mudgei (KUVP 1305), including limb bones, vertebrae and gastroliths, is figured in a 1903 photograph by Williston. Further study of these historically collected specimens is hampered by the lack of associated stratigraphic information. The collection of future specimens with accurate field data is important to our understanding of the occurrence of marine vertebrates from the Early Cretaceous in Kansas.

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