Dinosaur gets a Kaw name (Wichita Eagle-Beacon)

[R. Rankin]

     Justin and I had a small hand in this.    Bob



                         R E L A T E D   L I N K S
                         •  THE NAMING OF A FOSSIL




      Kansas lends name to extinct sea lizard

      The 65-million-year-old species of ocean lizard
will be officially named after the state this spring.

      BY BECCY TANNER

      The Wichita Eagle


      It has finally happened.

      Derby paleontologist Mike Everhart's 10-year
quest to name a mosasaur fossil for Kansas has
succeeded.

      Tylosaurus kansasensis will become the official
Latin name of a giant sea lizard this spring when the
name is published in the Netherlands Journal of
Geosciences.

      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.

      "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.

      "If you were going to pick a fossil that would
typify Kansas, a mosasaur is a good choice."

      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 Kansas's heritage.

      "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 Field Museum (in Chicago) is one
that does. I want this one to also come alive in
people's imagination."

      This isn't the first fossil to be named
"kansasensis," Everhart said.

      At least 20 other fossils bear that name,
including several clams, a mouse and some trilobites.

      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.

      Since the late 1860s, the Smoky Hill chalk beds
of western Kansas have been known throughout the world
for containing fossils dating to the Cretaceous period,
nearly 87 million years ago.

      The mosasaurs, some species of which could grow
as long as 45 feet, were among the most terrifying
animals of their time.

      "They ruled the oceans at the end of the age of
the dinosaur," Everhart said. "They were a big
predator."

      They were monsters that ate everything in their
way, swallowing prey whole.

      "In Kansas, there were more than a dozen types of
mosasaurs," Everhart said. "Worldwide, the number is
more than 40."

      This particular species of mosasaur has been
found only in Kansas, 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 Sternberg
Museum's collection in Hays.

      Anyone can name an unnamed fossil, Everhart said.
But a name gains credibility only when it is published
in a recognized journal.

      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."

      The Kanza people originally lived in the Ohio
River valley. By the early 1800s, they had moved to
what is now the Kansas, or Kaw, River valley to claim a
territory that covered roughly two-fifths of modern-day
Kansas.

      In 1873, the tribe was forced to move to Indian
Territory, in present-day Oklahoma.

      Justin McBride, language coordinator for the
Kanza Language Project with the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma,
said the naming is an honor.

      "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."

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