To the editor:

The interesting Kansas News Service article in the Journal-World recently, “Unearthing clues from when western Kansas was hell’s aquarium,” left out points that are likely of interest to the KU community. Much of the rock from which the fossils are extracted is chalk in a specific sense: fine-grained limestone composed mostly of fossils of coccolithophores and pelagic foraminifera. Fossils not mentioned in the article include those of birds that were first discovered in the 1870s. From these facts, the steps from Rah Rah Jayhawk to Rock Chalk Jayhawk are few and short. The signature KU cheer celebrates rocks and fossils of the Cretaceous western interior seaway.

Anthony W. Walton,

Lawrence