1971 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 1971.

Archosauromorphs

Newly named pseudosuchians

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Venaticosuchus[2]	gen et sp nov	valid	Bonaparte	Late Triassic		Argentina	an ornithosuchid	Venaticosuchus rusconii

Newly named dinosaurs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.^[3]

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Nemegtosaurus[4]	gen et sp nov	Valid	Nowinski	Late Cretaceous	Nemegt Basin	Mongolia		Nemegtosaurus
Yaverlandia[5]	gen et sp nov	Valid taxon	Galton	Lower Cretaceous	Wessex Formation	England	Maniraptoran?

Newly named onithodirans

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Lagerpeton[6]	gen et sp nov	Valid	Romer	Ladinian	Chañares Formation	Argentina
Lagosuchus[6]	fam et gen et sp nov	valid	Romer	Ladinian	Chañares Formation	Argentina		Lagosuchus

Newly named birds

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Anser devjatkini [7]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Evgeny N. Kurochkin	Late Miocene	Hyargas Nuur Formation	Mongolia	An Anatidae.
Antillovultur varonai [8]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Oscar Arredondo	Late Quaternary	Las Breas de San Felipe	Cuba	An Accipitridae, transferred to the genus Gymnogyps by William Suarez et Steven D. Emslie, 2003.,[9] this is the type species of the new genus.
Bathornis minor [10]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Joel Cracraft	Early Miocene		USA:  South Dakota	A Gruiformes, Bathornithidae Wetmore, 1933.
Bucorvus brailloni [11]	Sp. nov.	Valid	J. Brunet	Middle Miocene	MN 7	Morocco	A Bucorvidae.
Campephilus dalquesti [12]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Pierce Brodkorb	Late Pliocene	Blancan	USA:  Texas	A Picidae.
Cerorhinca minor [13]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Hildegarde Howard	Late Miocene - Late Pliocene	Almejas Formation	Mexico	An Alcidae.
Cygnus pristinus [7]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Evgeny N. Kurochkin	Late Miocene - Early Pliocene	Chirgiz-Nur Formation	Mongolia	An Anatidae.
Dolichonyx kruegeri [14]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Karlheinz Fischer Burkhard Stephan	Late Pleistocene	Cave deposits	Cuba	An Icteridae.
Eutreptornis uintae [10]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Joel Cracraft	Middle Eocene	Uinta Formation	USA:  Utah	A Gruiformes, Bathornithidae Wetmore, 1933. This is the type species of the new genus.
Fulica picapicensis [14]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Karlheinz Fischer Burkhard Stephan	Quaternary	Cave deposits	Cuba	A flightless Rallidae, transferred to the genus Nesotrochis Wetmore, 1918 by Storrs L. Olson, 1974.
Grus cubensis [15]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Karlheinz Fischer Burkhard Stephan	Late Pleistocene	Cave deposits	Cuba	A flightless Gruidae.
Macrorhamphus finitimus [7]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Evgeny N. Kurochkin	Pliocene		Mongolia	A Scolopacidae, transferred to the genus Limnodromus.
Mancalla cedrosensis [13]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Hildegarde Howard	Early Pliocene	Almejas Formation	Mexico	An Alcidae, Mancalinae.
Onychopteryx simpsoni [16]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Joel Cracraft	Early Eocene	Casamajor Formation	Argentina	Described in the Opisthocomiformes in a new family, Onychopterygidae, Cracraft, 1971. This is the type species o th new genus.
Phalacrocorax mongoliensis [7]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Evgeny N. Kurochkin	Pliocene	Great Lakes	Mongolia	A Phalacrocoracidae.
?Platydyptes marplesi [17]	Sp. nov.	Valid	George G. Simpson	Early or Middle Oligocene	Duntroonian	New Zealand	A Spheniscidae.
Progrus turanicus [18]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Oleg G. Bendukidze	Middle-Late Eocene	Kalmakpai River	USSR:  Kazakhstan	A Gruiformes, Eogruidae Wetmore, 1934. This is the type species of the new genus, the species was transferred to the genus Eogrus Wetmore, 1934.
Proplegadis fisheri [19]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Colin J. O. Harrison Cyril A. Walker	Early Eocene	Sheppey, MP 8-9	UK:  England	Described in the Threskiornithidae, placed in Aves Incerte Sedisby Storrs L. Olson, 1981. Mayr. 2009: it looks more like a Phaethontidae, this is the type species of the new genus.
Puffinus tedfordi [13]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Hildegarde Howard	Early Pliocene	Almejas Formation	Mexico	A Spheniscidae.
Spheniscus predemersus [20]	Sp. nov.	Valid	George G. Simpson	Late Pliocene	Langebaanweg	South Africa	A Spheniscidae, in 1975 Simpson created a new genus, Inguza for the species [21]
Spizaetus tanneri [22]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Larry D. Martin	Early Pleistocene	Broadwater Formation	USA;  Nebraska	An Accipitridae.
Struthio transcaucasicus [23]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Nikolay I. Burchak-Abramovich Abesalom K. Vekua	Late Pliocene	Akchagil age	Georgia;  Azerbaijan; ? Turkey	A Struthionidae.
Wimanornis seymourensis [24]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	George G. Simpson	Eocene	Seymour Island	Antarctica	A basal Spheniscidae, this is the type species of the new species.

Newly named pterosaurs

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Araripesaurus	gen et sp nov	Valid	Price	Early Cretaceous	Santana Formation	Brazil	an ornithocheirid
Sordes	gen et sp nov	Valid	Sharov	Late Jurassic	Karabastau Svita	Kazakhstan	possible rhamphorhynchid	Sordes pilosus

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. Bonaparte, J.F. 1970. Annotated list of the South American Triassic tetrapods. Second Gondwana Symposium South Africa, Proceedings and Papers: pp. 665-682.
3. Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". Retrieved 2008-08-07.
4. Nowinski, A. 1971. Nemegtosaurus mongoliensis n. gen., n. sp (Sauropoda) from the uppermost Cretaceous of Mongolia. Palaeontol. Polonica 25: pp. 57-81.
5. Galton, P.M. 1971. A primitive dome-headed dinosaur (Ornithischia: Pachycephalosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of England, and the function of the dome in pachycephalosaurids. J. Paleontol. 45: pp. 40-47.
6. Romer, A.S. 1971. The Chañares (Argentina) Triassic reptile fauna. X. Two new but incompletely known long-limbed pseudosuchians. Breviora 378: pp. 1-10.
7. Evgeny N. Kurochkin (1971). "[On the Pliocene Avifauna of Mongolia]". Transactions of the Joint Soviet-Mongolian Geological Expedition 3 (5): 58–69.
8. Oscar Arredondo (1971). "Nuevo Género y Especie de Ave Fósil (Accipitriformes: Vulturidae) del Pleistoceno de Cuba". Memoria de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle 31 (90): 309–323.
9. Suárez, W.; Emslie, S.D. (2003). "New fossil material with a redescription of the extinct condor Gymnogyps varonai (Arredondo, 1971) from the Quaternary of Cuba (Aves: Vulturidae)" (PDF). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 116 (1): 29–37.
10. Joel Cracraft (1971). "Systematics and Evolution of the Gruiformes (Class, Aves) 2. Additional Comments on the Bathornithidae, with Descriptions of a New Species" (PDF). Amerecan Museum Novitates 2449: 1–14.
11. J. Brunet (1971). "Oiseaux Miocénes de Beni Mellal (Maroc), un Complément à Leur Étude". Notes et Mémoires, Service Géologique (Morocco) 31: 109–111.
12. Pierce Brodkorb (1971). "The Paleospecies of Woodpeckers" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 33: 132–136.
13. Hildegarde Howard (1971). "Pliocene Avian Remains from Baja California" (PDF). Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County, Contributions in Science 217: 1–17.
14. Karlheinz Fischer & Burkhard Stephan (1971). "Weitere Vogelreste aus dem Pleistozän der Pio-Domingo-Höhle in Kuba Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Math.-Nat. R." 20: 593–607.
15. Karlheinz Fischer & Burkhard Stephan (1971). "Ein Flugunfahiger Kranich (Grus cubensis n.sp.) aus dem Pleitozän von Kuba - eine Osteologie der Familie der Kraniche (Gruidae)". In: Palaeontologische und Zoologische Forschungen in Kuba Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Math.-Nat. R. 20: 541–592.
16. Joel Cracraft (1971). "A New Family of Hoatzin-like Birds (Order Opisthocomiformes) from the Eocene of South America" (PDF). Ibis 113 (2): 229–233. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1971.tb05148.x.
17. George G. Simpson (1971). "A Review of the Pre-Pliocene Penguins of New Zealand" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 144 (5): 319–378.
18. Oleg G. Bendukidze (1971). "Novyj prestavitel’ semeistva Geranoididae (Aves, Gruiformes) iz eotsenovykh otlozhenij Zaisan". Soobtzhenija Akademii Nauk Gruzinskoj SSSR 63: 749–751.
19. Colin J. O. Harrison & Cyril A. Walker (1971). "A New Ibis from the lower Eocene of Britain". Ibis 113 (3): 367–368. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1971.tb05169.x.
20. George G. Simpson (1971). "Fossil Penguin from the Late Cenozoic of South Africa". Science 171: 1144–1145. doi:10.1126/science.171.3976.1144. PMID 17777603.
21. George G. Simpson (1975). "Notes on Variation in Penguins and on Fossil Penguins from the Pliocene of Langebaanweg, Cape Province, South Africa" (PDF). Annals of the South African Museum 69 (4): 59–72.
22. Larry D. Martin (1971). "An Early Pleistocene Eagle from Nebraska" (PDF). Condor 73 (2): 248–250. doi:10.2307/1365848.
23. Nikolay I. Burchak-Abramovich & Abesalom K. Vekua (1971). "The Fossil Ostrich from the Akchagil Layers of Georgia". Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 16 (1): 1–28.
24. George G. Simpson (1971). "Review of the Fossil Penguins from Seymour Island" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 178: 357–387. doi:10.1098/rspb.1971.0070.