A very interesting post by Pharyngula scribe P. Z. Myers that helps to put the geologic legacy of western Kansas into perspective. This is the part of the state I am from, and I have a painting of a Niobrara chalk outcrop on my living room wall. But there is nothing like considering the history of the area, with short mentions of the role of the Sternbergs in discovering it, to put the landscape into a deeper perspective. This post goes from a microscopic view of the chalk to the paleontology of ancient reptiles in the formation.
You can find out more about them at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, which preserves many of the original fossils prepared by George Sternberg. The web site could be better, but the museum is a real treat; it rivals some of the best university paleontology exhibit museums I have seen.
You can still find sharks' teeth on the chalk road past my grandparents' farm. They've been waiting 80 million years to be found.
