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Here is the Wichita newspaper account of the naming of the sea-going dinosaur at the Sternberg Museum that I mentioned in connection with Mark's fine paper on Omaha bug/lizard names. The reporter got things a little mixed up, but the article is pretty accurate.
I had made several suggestions for names, and my recollection was that they picked "walushka hi-tanga" 'big-toothed lizard'. What they chose is slightly different, but the essence remains. Anyhow, here is the biggest Wagthishka of all -- 45 feet.<br>
<br>
I hope everybody enjoyed the conference -- I think it was the biggest ever.<br>
<br>
Bob<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman"">The
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Wichita</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> Eagle</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><br>
<img src="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CRLR%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_image001.gif" height="1" width="1"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">It has finally happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Derby</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> paleontologist Mike Everhart's 10-year quest to name a mosasaur fossil for
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> has succeeded.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tylosaurus kansasensis
</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">will become the official Latin name of a giant sea lizard this spring when the name is published in the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Unofficially, this type of mosasaur -- a 25-foot-long sea lizard that lived in the ocean more than 65 million years ago -- will be known
as "je-Walushka-tanga" (pronounced jay wah-LOOSH-gah DUNG-gah"), meaning "great ocean lizard" in the language of the Kaw or Kanza tribe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"It's nice to name a mosasaur after Kansas -- after all, Kansas is where most of the mosasaurs have been found," said Larry Martin, curator
of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"If you were going to pick a fossil that would typify
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">, a mosasaur is a good choice."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Everhart, who serves as the adjunct curator of paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, said he wanted the name
of the fossil to reflect </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">'s heritage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The Indian name just makes the fossil a little more special," Everhart said. "There are hundreds of different kinds of fossils sitting
in boxes in all kinds of places. Few of them have a life of their own. The T. rex Sue at the
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Field</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Museum</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> (in
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Chicago</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">) is one that does. I want this one to also come alive in people's imagination."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">This isn't the first fossil to be named "kansasensis," Everhart said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At least 20 other fossils bear that name, including several clams, a mouse and some trilobites.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The new name also touts the state's fossil heritage and how these rolling farm plains were once at the bottom of a 600-foot-deep ocean.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Since the late 1860s, the Smoky Hill chalk beds of western
</span><span style="font-family:
"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> have been known throughout the world for containing fossils dating to the Cretaceous period, nearly 87 million years ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The mosasaurs, some species of which could grow as long as 45 feet, were among the most terrifying animals of their time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"They ruled the oceans at the end of the age of the dinosaur," Everhart said. "They were a big predator."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">They were monsters that ate everything in their way, swallowing prey whole.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"In
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">, there were more than a dozen types of mosasaurs," Everhart said. "Worldwide, the number is more than 40."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">This particular species of mosasaur has been found only in
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">, he said, and has been unnamed for nearly 140 years. There are 13 known specimens of this type of mosasaur -- nine of which are in the
</span><span style="font-family:
"Times New Roman"">Sternberg</span><span style="font-family:
"Times New Roman"">
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Museum</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">'s collection in Hays.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Anyone can name an unnamed fossil, Everhart said. But a name gains credibility only when it is published in a recognized journal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In his paper, Everhart wrote that the fossil is named after the Kanza Indians, "from which the name of the state... is derived and where
all of the known specimens have been collected."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Kanza people originally lived in the
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Ohio River</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> valley. By the early 1800s, they had moved to what is now the
</span><span style="font-family:
"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">, or Kaw, River valley to claim a territory that covered roughly two-fifths of modern-day
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kansas</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In 1873, the tribe was forced to move to
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Indian Territory</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">, in present-day
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Oklahoma</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Justin McBride, language coordinator for the Kanza Language Project with the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma, said the naming is an honor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The Kaw language is no longer spoken fluently," he said. "It is easy for mainstream Americans to think that native languages were of
lesser importance. But they are every bit as rich as other languages in the world. I think Mike Everhart's wish of going back to the source, going back to 'kansasensis' is a very positive move."</span></p>
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</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Reach Beccy Tanner at 268-6336 or
<a href="mailto:btanner@wichitaeagle.com">btanner@wichitaeagle.com</a>.</span></i></p>
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