1854 in paleontology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils.[1] This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1854.
Vertebrate paleozoology
| Non-mammalian synapsids described in 1854 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | |
| Bathygnathus[2] | Valid | Joseph Leidy | Early Permian | Unnamed unit |  Canada |
A sphenacodontid pelycosaur. | ||
| Nothosaurs described in 1854 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Location | Notes | |||
| Deirosaurus | Junior synonym | Owen | Late Triassic |  Italy |
Junior synonym of Lariosaurus. | |||
| Prehistoric dinosaurs described in 1854 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | |
|
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
Junior subjective synonym of Massospondylus. |
|||||||
|
Valid |
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
A massospondylid. a Small Plant-Eating Sauropodomorph. |
 | |||||
|
Valid |
Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) |
 | ||||||
|
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
Junior subjective synonym of Massospondylus. |
|||||||
Literature
- The Fossil Spirit: A Boy's Dream of Geology by John Mill was published. The story features a fakir from Hindostan telling a group of boys about his past lives as prehistoric creatures across geologic time. One such life as was lived as an Iguanodon who was attacked by a Megalosaurus. Apart from this fight scene, paleontologist William A. S. Sarjeant has dismissed the book as a "singularly turgid and heavily didactic text."[4]