CHURCH OF THE CRETACEOUS + THE PTERANODON SKULL | Fossil Hunter | Chuck Bonner

Chuck Bonner is a family-taught paleontologist & artist hailing from the chalk beds of Western Kansas: once an ancient ocean teaming with large swimming & flying reptiles, fish, sharks, and turtles. He and his wife live off-the-grid in an old chalk church they've renovated into a fossil gallery a few miles down the road from Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park. We begin by learning why this landscape makes for such good Cretaceous fossil hunting & get a glimpse of what a hunt in the chalk beds is like. Chuck shares two memorable "fossil fishing" stories: the first about a pteranodon skull found when he was only 15; the second about how his family name [Bonner] has been forever immortalized by science.  After story time, Chuck gives us a tour of his workshop. Did you know Indiana Jones was based on a real life, legendary paleontologist [not an anthropologist]? And if you're like me, I found it extremely helpful to reference the illustrations & fossil photos on Chuck's website for a clear mental picture of what these ancient animals looked like.

Check out Chuck & his wife's gift shop, fossil & art gallery: Keystone Gallery. And watch the Bonners at work in their fossil beds in NOVA's Making North America: Life.



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