Use of archival photographs to rediscover the locality of the Holyrood elasmosaur (Ellsworth County, Kansas)

Abstract

In 1931, an oilfield geologist working in Ellsworth County discovered large bones eroding from a limestone exposure along a creek bank about two miles west of the town of Holyrood, Kansas. He notified George F. Sternberg of the remains and later that year, Sternberg and his assistant, Myrl V. Walker, collected the remains of a large, headless elasmosaur from the “Lincoln Marble (Benton).” The specimen (UNSM 50136) was sold to the University of Nebraska State Museum in 1935, where it was prepared from the remaining matrix. One of the front paddles has been on display in the UNSM since that time. Sternberg was also an accomplished photographer and took several black and white photographs of the locality. The photos were used by Harold Ehler, the grandson of the person who had leased the land at the time of the discovery, and the author to confirm the locality and stratigraphic occurrence of this relatively unknown but important specimen.