This is the "Fossil Friday" post #33. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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If you get a chance to check out the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in Laurence, KS. Take just a few more minutes and visit Slawson Hall. They have hung casts of a Tylosaurus (Tylosaurus proriger) and a turtle (Protostega sp.). Here the large predatory animal is giving chase for a meal in the Cretaceous oceans of the Niobrara Formation. These animals lived about 84 million years ago in what is now western Kansas. The original skeleton of the mosasaur is known as the Bunker Mosasaur. This specimen is huge... a real monster. It hangs in the entrance of the KU Museum of Natural History.
The KU Alumni Association has a nice page about the installation of the Slawson Hall display.
The new Earth, Energy & Environment Center will include some old bones.
Triebold Paleontology recently cast and installed a replica of a mosasaur fossil known as Tylosaurus proriger. C.D. Bunker, curator at KU’s Natural History Museum, and his associates collected the fossil in Wallace County in 1911.
An intimidating predator, the mosasaur will take your breath away. The size and length are imposing enough. But its teeth seal the deal—or in this case, the fate of an 84-million-year-old sea turtle the Tylosaurus is chasing in the display
“This is the Earth Energy and Environment Center; it’s all about the earth sciences,” said Bob Goldstein, Haas Distinguished professor of geology and special advisor for campus development in the provost’s office. “What better specimen to bring the public in than a spectacular 45-foot-long sea monster from the cretaceous of Kansas.”
Ancient fossils and KU connections
Sea turtles were likely prey for mosasaurs, and this particular fossil shows nearly 100 bite marks from a mosasaur similar in size to Tylosaurus proriger. Anthony Maltese, c’04, was part of the team that collected the sea turtle fossil south of Quinter in October, 2011.
Bunker’s original Tylosaurus specimen resides at the KU Natural History Museum in Dyche Hall. It is believed to be the largest complete mosasaur fossil in existence.
Original skeleton
Slawson Hall display
