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On view at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, are fossils of a Xiphactinus audax with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg (1883–1969). Note: this is not one of the items that had been consigned to Bonhams' auction. Photo by Spacini, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike3 License.

Natural history museum concerned about NY fossil auction

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

On view at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, are fossils of a Xiphactinus audax with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg (1883–1969). Photo by Spacini, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike3 License.
On view at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, are fossils of a Xiphactinus audax with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg (1883–1969). Photo by Spacini, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike3 License.
HAYS, Kan. (AP) – Officials at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays are concerned about an auction of fossils collected by the museum’s namesake.

The auction house Bonham’s is scheduled to sell as many as 11 fossils collected by Charles H. Sternberg, patriarch of the fossil-collecting family the Sternberg Museum was named for.

The Hays Daily News reports the fossils up for auction are from the San Diego Natural History Museum. Sternberg adjunct curator Mike Everhart says the museum would love to have the pieces but it doesn’t have the money to bid on the collection. Opening bids on one item could start around $100,000.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology also doesn’t approve of the fossils being sold to a private collector who won’t make them available to the public.

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Information from: The Hays (Kan.) Daily News, http://www.hdnews.net

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

On view at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, are fossils of a Xiphactinus audax with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg (1883–1969). Photo by Spacini, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike3 License.
On view at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, are fossils of a Xiphactinus audax with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg (1883–1969). Photo by Spacini, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike3 License.