1854 in paleontology

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Paleontology, palaeontology or [palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos, "being"; and logos, "knowledge") 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 mankind has 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.

Scientific advances

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 Leptospondylus[3] Junior synonym. Sir Richard Owen Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) Upper Elliot Formation  South Africa Junior subjective synonym of Massospondylus. Massospondylus[3] Valid Sir Richard Owen Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) Upper Elliot Formation  South Africa A massospondylid. Nuthetes[3] Valid Sir Richard Owen Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group  England A dromaeosaurid. Pachyspondylus[3] Junior synonym. Sir Richard Owen Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) Upper Elliot Formation  South Africa Junior subjective synonym of Massospondylus.

People

Awards and recognition

Popular culture

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]

References

1. Gini-Newman, Garfield; Graham, Elizabeth (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN 9780070887398. OCLC 46769716.
2. Leidy, J. 1854. Remarks on Bathygnathus borealis (Article XVI). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia (2nd Series) Volume VIII, part 4: pp. 449-451;
3. Owen, R. 1854. Descriptive catalogue of the fossil organic remains of reptilia contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. British Museum (Natural History), London: 184 pages.
4. Sarjeant, W. A. S., 2001, Dinosaurs in fiction: In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, pp. 504-529.