Books

Fossils of the Rock Chalk

Bones and Beasts of the Kansas Cretaceous

Fossils of the Rock Chalk lets readers journey back in time to the Kansas Cretaceous Period, when mosasaurs and pterosaurs roamed the seas and skies. As you flip through this book’s pages, you’ll feel like you are walking through a museum surrounded by swimming reptiles, flying reptiles, bony fishes, sharks, birds, and invertebrates, all brought to life with stunning illustrations of ancient life. Written and illustrated by two members of the Bonner fossil-hunting family.

ISBNs: Paperback 9798993053134 · Hardcover 9798993053141

Fossils of the Rock Chalk book cover

Fossils of the Rock Chalk is a time-machine cruise on a prehistoric ocean inhabited by astonishing fish, reptiles, and birds that lived there for more than thirty million years before vanishing with the dinosaurs. Sign up for the expedition when you turn page one and you’ll never want to get off the boat.
— Brad Matsen, author, with artist Ray Troll, of Planet Ocean: A Story of Life, the Sea, and Dancing to the Fossil Record.

A handy guide to chalk-bed fossils and the animals that gave rise to them, written and illustrated by members of one of the premier fossil-collecting families of western Kansas. Take it along the next time you head out.
— Rex Buchanan, editor, Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils

Melanie Bonner Thomas, a Kansas native, spent most of her career as an editor and writer in Austin, Texas, and currently lives in New Orleans. She has written biographies of famous people for young readers, as well as magazine articles on paleontology, archeology, and history for Texas Monthly and Hispanic magazines.

Chuck Bonner, from Leoti, Kansas, contributed the use of his mural for illustrations used in the book. He combines the avocations of his parents—paleontology and art—in the Keystone Gallery and Fossil Museum, located in western Kansas on U.S. Highway 83 between Scott City and Oakley, Kansas. Bonner received his BA and MA in art from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.

  • Foreword
  • Imagine a World
  • Preface
  • 1. What Is the Rock Chalk?
  • 2. Collectors and Classification
  • 3. Swimming Reptiles
  • 4. Flying Reptiles
  • 5. Invertebrates
  • 6. Bony Fishes
  • 7. Sharks
  • 8. Birds
  • 9. Hunting and Studying Fossils
  • 10. Can You Identify These Fossils?
  • 11. The Full Mural
  • Kansas Museums and Chalkbed Sites
  • Acknowledgements
  • Further Reading
  • About the Contributors

Old Man of the Fossil Beds

A Kansas Dreamer, His Family of Hunters, and Their Search for Prehistoric Sea Creatures

Old Man of the Fossil Beds, a biography of Kansas paleontologist Marion Charles Bonner, blends memoir, history, and Cretaceous paleontology.

This book illuminates a remarkable region, an unconventional father, and a fossil-finding family whose curiosity and persistence shaped generations.

ISBNs: Paperback 9798993053103 · Hardcover 9798993053127

Old Man of the Fossil Beds book cover

A moving portrait of a self-taught paleontologist and the family who shared his lifelong pursuit of fossils, set against the vast Kansas chalk beds.

Both personal and scientific, the book captures the spirit of discovery and the quiet persistence of those who search the past to understand the world.

Melanie Bonner Thomas is a writer and editor based in Texas. Drawing from family history and a lifelong connection to paleontology, she brings together narrative, science, and memory in her work.

  • Part I – Bedrock
  • Plains Vision
  • Kansas Immigrants
  • Fish Catches Boy
  • Boy Meets Girl
  • Dust Bowl Survival

  • Part II – Family
  • Fish Tales
  • Old Man of the Army
  • Theater Operations
  • Digging the Dirt

  • Part III – Museums
  • Grand Man
  • Rare Friendship
  • History Lessons
  • California Connection
  • Storms and Sadness

  • Part IV – Legacy
  • My Muse
  • Institutional Knowledge
  • Mystery Fish
  • The Fossil Record
  • End of an Era

  • Kansas Cretaceous Marine Life
  • Museums with Bonner Fossils