Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, a famous Croatian geologist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist was born on October 25, 1856, the year of the discovery of the first Neandarthal man in Germany. As a young boy he showed interest in gathering the fossil remnants of plants and fish from the surrounding areas of Zagreb. In Zagreb he finished four grades of (real) gymnasium, and a part of his The Preparandium (Teachers Academy), and then went to study at the University of Zürich. From Zürich he went to München, where he started his paleontology studies. He studied with a famous European paleontologist Karl Zittel, who taught him everything he knew.

He got his Ph.D. in 1879 at the University of Tübingen, writing his dissertation on fossil fish from the Carpate mountains . The work was published in the famous Paleontographica magazine later that year in Cassel. In 1891 he was named the head principal of the Geology and Paleontology Department of the National Museum in Zagreb.