Charles Mortram Sternberg

Life

From a family of famous American fossil collectors, Sternberg worked for some years in the western United States before the family came to Canada to exploit the rich fossil fields of the Red Deer River valley in Alberta for the Geological Survey of Canada. Charles stayed in Canada and, after 1919, progressively took over the scientific description of fossil vertebrates for the Geological Survey. However, his field collecting continued, mainly in Alberta, Saskatchewan, northeastern British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. He published 47 papers on fossil vertebrates, primarily dinosaurs, many based on his own remarkable discoveries. He retired as an assistant biologist at the National Museum of Canada in 1950. Later, he helped establish Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1949 and was granted honorary degrees by the University of Calgary and Carleton University.

Did you know?
The first T. rex found in Canada, nicknamed “Huxley,” was first discovered in 1946 near the hamlet of Huxley, in central Alberta, by paleontologist Charles M. Sternberg but was not excavated because it was incomplete (16% of the skeleton) and situated on a high cliff. The specimen was relocated in 1979 by geophysicist J.F. Lerbekmo and determined to be situated 10.5 m below the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The skeleton was later excavated in 1981 by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.