Charles H. Sternberg and the collection of late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico
— Adrian P. Hunt, Spencer G. Lucas, and Niall J. Mateer

Cope (1885) first described fossil vertebrates from the Fruitland and Kirtland Formations. Prior to 1921, collecting was sporadic. In 1921-1922, Charles H. Sternberg amassed the largest collection of fossil vertebrates to that time, principally for the University of Uppsala, Sweden, but also for the Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. Little collecting occurred for 50 years after Sternberg. In the later 1970s through the present, large collections of fossil vertebrates were made.