By CASEY HUTCHINS
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA — Fossils of the Tylosaurus and Pteranodon soon could resurface as dignitaries in classrooms across Kansas.
A legislative committee approved House Bill 2595 to declare these ancient creatures, who resided millions of years ago in what later became Kansas, the official state marine and flying fossils.
“It may seem like insignificant legislation and not worthy of the time in a day where there are many pressing issues, but the kids of Kansas deserve this,” said Steven Fisher, an 11-year member of the Manning Jayhawkers 4-H Club in Scott County.
Fisher, who endorsed nomination of the Tylosaurus and Pteranodon, has distinction of finding a Tylosaurus vertebrae in chalk beds of Scott County.
Other supporters of the bill included representatives of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and the Fort Hays State University Sternberg Museum of Natural History. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism supported concept of the bill.
Each of these entities had a sense designation of official state fossils could promote tourism in Kansas. The bill isn’t expected to create any additional cost to the state.
“State symbols represent the magnificence of the great state in which we live and show other what we have to offer,” said Christopher Tymeson, chief legal counsel for the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. “This bill is a step to increasing visitation and awareness of Kansas.”
Forty U.S. states and Washington, D.C., have officially recognized fossils. Both the Tylosaurus and the Pteranodon are almost exclusively Kansas fossils as they were first most abundantly discovered here.
Fossilized skeletons of both creatures reside at the KU’s Natural History Museum and the FHSU’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History, as well as across the nation and globe.
“Here we get to see the actual skeletal remains,” said Rep. Tom Sloan, a Lawrence Republican and chairman of the House Vision 2020 Committee. “That makes it more of an attraction.”
“There are fossils in Harvard, Yale, England and other places that came from here,” Sloan said. “It’s where the best specimens are at. It will make people like paleontologists, archeologists and lovers of old stuff to come to Kansas to vacation.”
Other state symbols established in Kansas law include the Barred Tiger Salamander, state amphibian; Western Meadowlark, state bird; bluegill, state fish; Western Honey Bee, state insect; Plains Cottonwood, state tree; Ornate Box Turtle, state reptile; and American Bison, state mammal.
Fisher, the high school student, said creation of state fossils could teach children more about creatures of the past than what can be observed watching the movie “Jurassic Park.”
“As a 4-H geology project member and leader, I have had the opportunity to learn and teach other 4-Hers about the ancient seas and their inhabitants, but what about kids who aren’t in 4-H geology?” he said. “Only by the passage of this bill will many kids ever know who Kansas’ earliest inhabitants were or that they are sitting in the middle of an ancient ocean.”
The Fort Hays Chapter 18 Disabled American Veterans group is handing out blue poppies and taking donations to help disabled American veterans in the local area this Independence Day weekend.
