What is Smoky Hill Chalk?
[[File:Toxochelys.jpg|thumb|right|230px|This fossil of ''Toxochelys'', an extinct marine [[turtle]], from the [[Smithsonian]]'s [[National Museum of Natural History]].]] [[File:Pteranodon longiceps YPM1177.jpg|thumb|right|230px|Skull of a female ''[[Pteranodon]]'', found in the Smoky Hills Chalk in 1876.]] The '''Smoky Hill Chalk''' is an [[Upper Cretaceous]] conservation [[Lagerstätte]], or [[fossil]]-rich geological formation. It is known for its exceptionally well-preserved [[Ocean|marine]] [[reptile]]s from the [[Western Inland Sea]].<ref name=BottjerEtAl>{{cite book | editor-last = Bottjer | editor-first = David J. | editor2-last = Etter | editor2-first = Walter | editor3-last = Hagadorn | editor3-first = James W. | editor4-last = Tang | editor4-first = Carol M. | title = Exceptional Fossil Preservation: a unique View on the evolution of marine life | year = 2002 | publisher = Columbia University Press | isbn = 0231102550}}</ref> The Smoky Hill Chalk [[outcrop]]s in parts of northwest [[Kansas]], its most famous [[wikt:locality|localities]] for fossils, and in southeastern [[Nebraska]]. Large well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as [[plesiosaur]]s, large [[Osteichthyes|bony fish]] such as ''[[Xiphactinus]]'', [[mosasaur]]s, [[pterosaur]]s (namely ''[[Pteranodon]]''), flightless marine birds such as ''[[Hesperornis]]'', and [[turtle]]s. Many of the most well-known specimens of the marine reptiles were collected by dinosaur hunter [[Charles H. Sternberg]] and his son [[George F. Sternberg|George]]. The son collected a unique fossil of the giant bony fish ''Xiphactinus audax'' with the skeleton of another bony fish, ''Gillicus arcuatus'' inside the larger one. Another excellent skeleton of ''Xiphactinus audax'' was collected by [[Edward Drinker Cope]] during the late nineteenth century heyday of American paleontology.<ref>{{cite book | last = Schwimmer | first = David R. | title = King of the Crocodylians: the paleobiology of Deinosuchus | url = https://arch