1877_in_paleontology

1877 in paleontology

1877 in paleontology

Overview of the events of 1877 in paleontology

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 1877.

Quick Facts List of years in paleontology (table) ...

Arthropods

Newly named crustaceans

More information Name, Novelty ...

Newly named insects

More information Name, Novelty ...

Fish

More information Name, Novelty ...

Non-dinosaurian reptiles

More information Name, Novelty ...

Dinosaurs

Laelaps trihedrodon, Cope criticizes Dryptosaurus

O. W. Lucas collected the first remains of what would later in the year be named Laelaps trihedrodon from Quarry I of the Saurian Hill at Garden Park, Colorado.[12] Edward Drinker Cope would describe the material later in the year in a short paper titled "On a carnivorous dinosaurian from the Dakota beds of Colorado."[13] The "Dakota beds" he references are actually Morrison Formation strata.[12] Cope claims to have a skeleton of unspecified completeness on which to establish the new species, but only describes a partial dentary which has 5 successional teeth, 2 functional teeth, and one tooth missing from its socket.[13] All of the preceding material has since been lost to science with the exception of 5 broken, partial tooth crowns.[14] From the now missing dentary, Cope infers that the creature is a carnivore and compares its dentition to that belonging to other members of his infamous genus "Laelaps", L. aquilunguis and L. incrassatus.[13] Cope concludes the paper with a pointed criticism of his rival O. C. Marsh's attempt to rename Laelaps as the genus Dryptosaurus because the generic name Laelaps has been used in entomology.[15] Cope claims that since the mite genus Laelaps was a synonym that the name was not truly preoccupied and Marsh's erection of Dryptosaurus has therefore created a new, redundant synonym of Laelaps the dinosaur.[15] However, subsequent researchers have supported Marsh's new name.

Apatosaurus

  • Apatosaurus specimen found with preserved gastroliths.[16]

New genera

More information Name, Status ...

Synapsids

Non-mammalian

More information Name, Status ...

See also

Footnotes

  1. [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. [2]
    Etheridge, R. (1877). "On the Occurrence of a Macrurous Decapod (Anthrapalæmon? Woodwardi, sp. nov.) in the Red Sandstone, or lowest group, of the Carboniferous Formation in the South-east of Scotland". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 33 (1–4): 863–878. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1877.033.01-04.49. ISSN 0370-291X. S2CID 140182850.
  3. [3]
    Peach, B. N. (1908). Monograph on the higher Crustacea of the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. Glasgow: Printed for H.M. Stationery off., by J. Hedderwick & sons, ltd.
  4. [4]
    Scudder, S. H (1877). "Appendix to Mr. George M. Dawson's report. The insects of the Tertiary beds at Quesnel". Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for. 1875–1876: 266–280.
  5. [5]
    Michelsen, V. (1996). "First reliable record of a fossil species of Anthomyiidae (Diptera), with comments on the definition of recent and fossil clades in phylogenetic classification". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 58 (4): 441–451.
  6. [6]
    Carpenter, F. M. (1930). "The fossil ants of North America" (PDF). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 70: 1–66.
  7. [7]
    Radchenko, A. G.; Perkovsky, E. E. (2016). "The ant Aphaenogaster dlusskyana sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from the Sakhalin amber—the earliest described species of an extant genus of Myrmicinae". Paleontological Journal. 50 (9): 936–946. doi:10.1134/S0031030116090136.
  8. [8]
    Dalla Torre, K. W. (1893). Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus. Vol. 7. Formicidae (Heterogyna). Leipzig: W. Engelmann. p. 289.
  9. [9]
    Scudder, S. H. (1890). "The Tertiary insects of North America". United States Geological Survey of the Territories, Washington: 615.
  10. [10]
    Evenhuis (1994). Catalogue of the Fossil Flies of the World (Insecta: Diptera). Backhuys Publishers. pp. 1–600.
  11. [11]
    Grande, Lance (1984), "Paleontology of the Green River Formation, with a review of the fish fauna", Bulletin of the Wyoming State Geological Survey, 63 2nd ed., Laramie, WY
  12. [12]
    "Introduction," Chure (2001) page 11.
  13. [13]
    Cope (1887) pages 805-806.
  14. [14]
    "Description of 5780," Chure (2001) page 11.
  15. [15]
    Cope (1887) page 806.
  16. [16]
    Cannon (1907). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.

References
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 1877_in_paleontology, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.