Fossil Hunter
Sternberg's Family
Sternberg began his fossil hunting when he arrived in Ellsworth, here he started collecting leaf imprints from the Dakota Sandstone around the ranch. With this formation alone, Sternberg created a vast collection. In the winter of 1875-76 he was enrolled in school at what is now known as Kansas State University, were he was unable to get a spot on B.F. Mudge's fossil collecting crew for that summer. He later got a job from E.D. Cope in a letter that had $300 in it that told him to "Go to Work" collecting fossils for him. His first specimen he collected for Cope was a series of 23 large Tylosaurus Vertebrae. Throughout career Sternberg sold thousands of fossils to help pay for his work. His fossils can be found in over a dozen different countries and at least 22 different states. His fossils varied from a wide range of creatures including reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals. In 1913 he found what he considered his greatest discovery, was a complete skin impression of the crested duck-billed dinosaur Lambeosuarus lambei. This is on display in the dinosaur hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Skull from a Xiphactinus audax from KU Museum of Natural History
Jaw from a Tylosaurus proriger