Bonner’s fossil collecting career spanned 60 years. Notable specimens include a nearly complete short-necked plesiosaur, Dolichorhynchops osborni; three new species of invertebrates -- Pecten bonneri (bivalve mollusk described in 1968), Niobrarateuthis bonneri (squid described in 1957), and Enchoteuthus melanae (squid described in 1968). A new fish genus occupying the bottom-feeding niche in the Niobrara Cretaceous, called Bonnerichthys gladius, was described 18 years after Bonner’s death. Other notable finds from the Kansas Cretaceous include the most complete Hesperornis regalis specimen (Sternberg Museum, Hays, Kansas) and the most complete Platecarpus mosasaur (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles - LACM specimen 128319). In 1982, Bonner collected a "fish-within-a-fish" (a Gillicus inside a Xiphactinus ), similar to the famous fossil collected by George Sternberg on display at the Sternberg Museum. The Bonner fish-within-a-fish is on display at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology.
