Cretaceous Fish (Xiphactinus) Articulated Vertebrae in Situ - Kansas

Xiphactinus was a huge predatory fish that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It would have been a voracious predator, growing 15-20 feet long. When alive, the fish would have resembled a gargantuan fanged tarpon. It appeared in the BBC's Sea Monsters and National Geographic's Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, and was labelled a "Prehistoric Terror" in the Animal Planet show River Monsters.

The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil-rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. It outcrops in parts of northwest Kansas--its most famous localities for fossils--and in southeastern Nebraska. Large, well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and turtles.