Learn how the fossilized remains of a 14-foot-long saltwater fish were discovered in the plains of western Kansas, in this video from NOVA: Making North America: Life. The presence of the bones of a sea creature along the slopes of Monument Rocks suggests that the surface of North America was much different 80 million years ago than what it is today. Kansas, which is 750 miles from the nearest ocean, was part of a thousand-mile-wide span of land that had been covered by a large inland sea. The sea split the continent into two large landmasses: Laramidia in the west, and Appalachia in the east. This resource is part of the NOVA: Making North America Collection.