Anew specimen of russellosaurine mosasaur (FHSM VP-17564) from the middle Fairport Chalk Member (Collignoniceras woollgari zone, early Middle Turonian), Carlile Shale of central Kansas is among the earliest records of a derived mosasaur known from the North American Western Interior Seaway. Unequivocally the oldest recorded occurrence of a russellosaurine mosasaur from Kansas, and one of only four Kansas occurrences consisting of more than a single element, the specimen includes seven successive proximal caudal vertebrae bearing articulating hemal facets. No demonstrable characters ally the specimen to a more refined taxonomic subgroup, although the relative dimensions of the vertebral centra are significantly longer than equivalent caudal series in Platecarpus and Tylosaurus. This suggests that the tails of early russellosaurines were composed of a lesser number of longer caudal vertebrae than their successors, with less hydrodynamic adaptation from the terrestrial condition. Size of the vertebrae in relation to Platecarpus and Tylosaurus indicates a relatively large animal roughly 3.2 m in total body length, although this may be an over-estimate given the difference in vertebral dimensions as compared to more derived russellosaurines of the Niobrara Formation. The middle of the Fairport Chalk interval continues to produce a large number of vertebrate specimens despite the rarity of exposures. A pliosaurid plesiosaur skull (FHSM VP-321) is known from similar geographic and stratigraphic position as FHSM VP-17564, and the record of pliosaurs (FHSM VP-17469) continues into younger Blue Hill Shale (Prionocyclus hyatti zone, middle Middle Turonian) demonstrating with certainty that pliosaurs and early mosasaurs inhabited the same stretch of seaway for roughly one million years.

Fossil shark teeth are common but are usually represented by shed examples and are seldom in associated or articulated groups. Complete dentition reconstruction from isolated teeth cannot be certain, even when large quantities are available from a single location and horizon. The Smoky Hill Chalk (Late Cretaceous) of western Kansas, U.S.A. has yielded a number of associated, and sometimes articulated, tooth sets of Cretoxyrhina mantelli Agassiz. Teeth from articulated sets are rarely removed from matrix which limits the understanding of positional characteristics to a single perspective. In this paper, we analyze and described an associated set of disarticulated Cretoxyrhina teeth. These teeth were arranged and compared with other disarticulated associated sets, then compared with a known articulated tooth set; resulting in a multi-perspective Cretoxyrhina tooth set. This reconstruction provides characteristics that permit upper and lower lateroposterior teeth to be differentiated and raise questions regarding the number of anterior tooth positions present.

Although known from Mesozoic marine, fresh and brackish water deposits from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, hybodont shark remains have been rarely reported from the Cretaceous formations of Kansas. Remains of hybodonts reported from outside Kansas consist of small teeth, distinctive cephalic hooks, dorsal fin spines, and occasionally even complete fish. Collections of micro-vertebrate remains in Kansas since 1999 have confirmed the presence of hybodontiformes in the Kiowa (Albian), Dakota (Cenomanian) and Carlile (Turonian) formations in three different counties in the state. These specimens have been assigned to the genus Meristodonoides Underwood and Cumbaa 2010, and add an important element to the known marine faunas of the Western Interior Sea during late Early Cretaceous and early Late Cretaceous time.

We report specific locations and attributes of least shrews (Cryptotis parva) captured over a 29-year period on the Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas. We used large, nonfolding Sherman live traps to survey small mammals in native tallgrass prairie habitats (by traplines and grids), woodland habitats (by traplines and grids) and planted brome fields (traplines only). Eighty-seven least shrews were captured over the 29 years of surveys (ca. 350,000 trap nights). Almost all captures (98%) occurred in prairie habitat; 80% of all captures occurred on a prairie grid during a 5-year period. Least shrews on prairie traplines were captured in a variety of topographic positions (upland, hillside slope and lowland) and in burned and unburned prairie, but not in prairie grazed by bison. We captured individuals that ranged in body size from 2.5–8.0 g. The mean body mass of all captured least shrews was 4.7 g (excluding pregnant females) and, when only adults were included (excluding pregnant females), it was 5.1g. We noted 13 pregnancies among 12 females; the earliest pregnancy was recorded in mid-April and latest in mid-October. Most pregnancies (ca. 70%) were recorded in two months, July and September. Lactating females that were not pregnant were larger in size (5.5 g) than non-reproductive females (4.4 g). Response of least shrews to live traps was not neophobic; and, in fact, about 30% of the shrews were captured on day 1 of a 4-day trapping period on prairie sites. Our data add information about attributes of least shrews living in natural habitats, such as the tallgrass prairie, and support two previous studies, which suggested that least shrews are rare on Konza Prairie.

The type specimen of a large, flightless marine bird, Hesperornis regalis, was collected by O.C. Marsh in 1871. Due to the practices of the time, and the lack of accurate maps, the type locality was initially recorded by Marsh in a letter simply as the “upper Cretaceous of Western Kansas,” and then later reported as “the gray shale near the Smoky Hill River in Western Kansas.” Since the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation is exposed along the Smoky Hill River in present day Wallace, Logan and Gove counties over a distance of more than 75 miles, this vague locality information encompasses about 5 million years of depositional history. An 1880 account by Marsh narrows the locality down to the south bank of the Smoky Hill River about 20 miles east of Fort Wallace in Logan County. The results of a recent field investigation of the eastward route traveled by Marsh's 1871 Yale College Scientific Expedition sheds light on the probable locality of both the type specimen (YPM 1200) of Hesperornis regalis, and also the first specimen with a skull and teeth (YPM 1206) collected in 1872. In turn, this provides important new data supporting an earlier occurrence (Upper Santonian) of this species in the Western Interior Sea over Kansas than previously assumed.

The High Plains physiographic province in western Kansas is dotted with shallow depressions preserved mostly in loosely consolidated Tertiary and Quaternary sediments. These topographic lows, best observed when they are wet, can be the result of solution, infiltration, animal activity, eolian action, or meteorite impact. Also, because of alteration of the topographic feature after formation, it is virtually impossible to tell the origin of these features from their size and shape and many may not be recognizable at all.

Agulla protomaculata, new species (Raphidiidae: Raphidiinae), is described and figured from a series of males and females preserved as fine compressions in middle Eocene shale from the Green River Formation of Colorado. The specimens are exquisitely preserved, complete with integumental color patterns. The species is compared with other Tertiary snakeflies.

Loxoedischia drewi new genus and new species from Oklahoma, is described as the latest addition to the Orthoptera fauna of the Lower Permian Wellington Formation, bringing the total to eleven species, eight of which are known from Kansas, and three from Oklahoma. Family assignment is uncertain, but the taxon is closely related to the Oedischiidae.

The Earth has been viewed and photographed from above for more than a century utilizing a variety of platforms such as kites, balloons, airplanes, and now robotic and manned spacecraft. Imagery has been captured both by film and digital cameras from heights of a few hundred feet to hundreds of miles. This imagery has been used to construct topographic maps, identify man-made objects, and map surface features on Earth including the geology. Photographs taken at different altitudes have different resolution, aerial coverage, and levels of detail, and thus serve a number of different purposes. The quality and utility of Earth imagery has continuously improved during the last 100 years, including the photo-documentation of features in Kansas. Of special interest is the development of space-based photo-documentation including an extensive database of some 800,000 photographs maintained by NASA that have been taken by the astronauts since the beginning of human spaceflight. There are many high-quality photographs of Kansas most of which have been obtained from either Space Shuttle missions in high-inclination orbits or from the International Space Station. Images taken remotely over Kansas from different platforms at different heights for different purposes are shown as examples of how images from altitude can be used.

Mid-summer haying is a common management practice for prairies; plant species could differ in the effect of haying on subsequent growth and reproduction. We examined the effect of haying on prairie species by performing a clipping experiment. For each of seven species, sixteen plants were chosen and half were randomly assigned to a clipping treatment and half to a control treatment. Experimental plants (and surrounding vegetation) in the clipped treatment were cut to a ten cm height in summer for two years. Measurements of plant height and the number of inflorescences were taken on all plants prior to clipping in June and in the fall each year. For many species, clipped plants were smaller than control plants in the fall after clipping. However, after overwintering, there were few significant differences in plant size or reproductive output between plants that were previously clipped and control plants. Some species, however, did show persistent effects of clipping. For example, both plant size and number of inflorescences were reduced by clipping in Lespedeza capitata. Similarly, clipped plants of Amorpha canescens had fewer inflorescences the year after clipping compared to control plants. Future studies should examine long-term effects of haying on plant growth and reproduction, and explore whether such effects depend on plant life forms or flowering phenologies.

Our analysis of vertebrate remains collected from a Cenomanian microsite in the Lincoln Limestone, the basal-most member of the Greenhorn Formation in Russell County, Kansas, identifies ornithurine (sensu Chiappe, 1996) avian fossils. The specimens presented here are slightly younger than the oldest avian remains known from North America (from the Woodbine Formation, Texas) and of a similar age as the avians from the Asheville Formation in Saskatchewan, Canada. This find thus connects the extensive geographic range of the earliest North American birds from Saskatchewan south through central Kansas and on to Texas. The specimens discussed here are fragmentary, yet show features definitive of ornithurine birds. One specimen is attributable to Ichthyornis, whereas another preserves teeth characteristic of ornithurine birds. In addition to bird bones, the microsite yielded numerous bony fish remains, shark teeth, coniasaur vertebrae, and other lizard bones.

Edward Drinker Cope (1840–1897) reconstructed and named the type specimen of Elasmosaurus platyurus in 1869. In publishing this specimen, he made reference to various early 19^th century publications on plesiosaurs. Along with these publications, he would have had access to images of various fossil bones including vertebrae of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs which were printed in Edward Lhwyd's Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia (1699) as copies of the book were readily available to him in three Philadelphia research institutions. Cope did not refer to Lhwyd even though he had access to the book, and reasons for this are presented.

Rhizomes of Corallorhiza maculata and Corallorhiza striata and associated mycorrhizal fungi were dried with critical point drying (CPD) and air drying from hexamethy ldisilazane (HMDS) to compare the effectiveness of both methods in preparing specimens for scanning electron microscopy. Drying artifacts such as collapsed cells and lines and ridges on rhizome epidermal cells due to shrinkage resulted from both methods, but CPD produced the least artifacts. CPD and HMDS drying were equally effective at producing good to excellent preservation of internal features of the rhizomes and associated fungi with minimal artifacts.

Lungfishes (dipnoans) are lobe-finned fishes that have lived from the Devonian to Recent. Here, we describe a previously unreported Mesozoic lungfish species assigned to the genus Ceratodus on the basis of an isolated upper tooth from the Western Interior of North America. The morphology of the tooth specimen clearly suggests that it represents an undescribed taxon, but although distinct, the species cannot be given a new taxonomic name because of its mysterious provenance data. The specimen is noteworthy because it is the largest known lungfish tooth reported to date. We estimate the total length of this durophagous fish to be about 4 m in life. This discovery adds a remarkable new component to the paleoecology of North America during the ‘Age of Reptiles.’