The characteristic 'chalk rock' that makes Kansas such a fossil-rich environment is actually made up of the calcium carbonate shells of dead photosynthetic plankton ( Coccolithophores). This shallow marine environment is extremely productive because much of it is only ~200 meters deep meaning a majority of the WIS was in the photic zone. Seas like the WIS are never very deep, reaching only a few hundred meters at its greatest depth. The WIS is an epicontinental or inland sea, meaning it is an ocean sitting on top of continental crust as opposed to ocean crust. This area easily flooded as sea level rose due to the formation of underwater mountain ranges during a greenhouse environment with no ice caps.

All of this geologic activity left the middle of North America below sea level. This was the time of the Sevier orogeny, or 'mountain building' (which was severe, just not spelled that way) which left basins as a byproduct. Towards the end of the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic, the Eastern side of North America was built but the western side of North America was still being formed. Laura works on the Western Interior Seaway (WIS), the prehistoric seaway that divided North America after Pangea dispersed in the Mid-Late Cretaceous. The one thing missing from her education was a paleontology experience, so she reached out to her old high school teacher who got her connected with Jack Horner and the Museum of the Rockies crew working on the Hell Creek Formation. Laura did her undergrad at Washington Lee University in Lexington, VA to study geology and continue playing Lacrosse. She then fell in love with rocks and deep time and became a full-fledged Paleo Nerd! She wanted to follow in the footsteps of Eugenie Clark AKA the 'Shark Lady.' But by 7th grade, the Jurassic Park debut coincided with Laura's introduction to extinction and her first earth science class. On Summer vacations in Florida, Laura would wake up early in the morning to comb the beach for shark teeth with her dad.

Laura Wilson Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Associate Professor of Geosciences at Fort Hays State University,

Hell's aquarium