1995 in paleontology

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 in the year 1995.

Molluscs

Bivalves

Arthropods

New taxa

Arachnids

Insects

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Baltimartyria[4]	gen nov	valid	Skalski	Early Eocene	Baltic amber		new genus for Micropterix proavitella
Dryinus grimaldii[5]	sp nov	valid	Olmi	Burdigalian	Dominican amber	Dominican Republic	first fossil Dryinus lamellatus group species	Dryinus grimaldii
Electrinocellia[6]	subfam, gen et sp nov	Valid	Engel	Eocene	Baltic amber		sister taxon to the rest of Inocelliidae

Dinosaurs

• Fossil hunters working on behalf of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum discover a large coprolite from a theropod dinosaur in Maastrichtian strata. In 1997 it is sent to coprolite specialist Karen Chin, who determines that this specimen of fossilized feces was attributable to Tyrannosaurus rex. One year later, in 1998, Karen Chin and others publish a joint paper in Nature announcing the finding.

• Paul Sereno lead an expedition to the Kem Kem region of southeastern Morocco. Among the fossils discovered is a partial skull of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. Significantly, it preserves a "complete and undistorted braincase" which would later be described in detail along with the structure of the inner ear of C. saharicus by Hans C. E. Larsson in 2001.^[7]

Newly named dinosaurs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list^[8] and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.^[9]

Name	Status	Authors		Notes	Images
Achelousaurus[10]	Valid taxon	Scott D. Sampson			Achelousaurus Ampelosaurus Einiosaurus Giganotosaurus "Jingshanosaurus" "Saurophaganax" "Dinotyrannus" and "Stygivenator" are both junior synonyms of Tyrannosaurus. "Jenghizkhan" is a junior synonym of Tarbosaurus.
Ampelosaurus[11]	Valid taxon	Le Loeuff
Asiamericana[12]	Valid taxon	Lev A. Nesov
“Brontoraptor”	nomen nudum	Redman
Bugenasaura[13]	Junior Synonym of Thescelosaurus[14]	Peter Galton
Chindesaurus[15]	Valid taxon	R. A. Long	Murry
"Dinotyrannus"[16]	Junior Synonym of Tyrannosaurus	George Olshevsky vide: George Olshevsky Ford	Yamamoto
Einiosaurus[10]	Valid taxon	Sampson
Genusaurus[17]	Valid taxon	Accarie Beaudoin Dejax	Friès Michard Philippe Taquet
Giganotosaurus[18]	Valid taxon	Rodolfo Coria	Salgado
Jainosaurus[19]	Valid taxon	Hunt Lockley	S. G. Lucas C. Meyer
"Jenghizkhan"[20]	Junior Synonym of Tarbosaurus	George Olshevsky vide: George Olshevsky Ford	Yamamoto
Jingshanosaurus[21]	Valid taxon	Zhang Y. H.	Yang Z. L.
Kulceratops[12]	Valid taxon	Lev A. Nesov
“Liassaurus”[22]	nomen nudum	Samuel Paul Welles, H. P. Powell, and Pickering vide: Pickering
“Merosaurus”[22]	nomen nudum	Samuel Paul Welles, H. P. Powell and Pickering vide: Pickering
Niobrarasaurus[23]	Valid taxon	Kenneth Carpenter Dilkes	David Weishampel
Saurophaganax[24]	Valid taxon	Chure
"Stygivenator"[16]	Junior Synonym of Tyrannosaurus	George Olshevsky vide: George Olshevsky Ford	Yamamoto
Texasetes[25]	Valid taxon	Coombs
“Walkersaurus”[22]	nomen nudum; material later named Duriavenator	Samuel Paul Welles, H. P. Powell and Pickering vide: Pickering

Pterosaurs

New taxa

References

Paleontology portal

1. ^ Newman, Garfield, et al (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN 0-07-088739-X. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Elicki, O.; Gürsu, S. (2009). "First record of Pojetaia runnegari Jell, 1980 and Fordilla Barrande, 1881 from the Middle East (Taurus Mountains, Turkey) and critical review of Cambrian bivalves". Paläontologische Zeitschrift 83 (2): 267–291. doi:10.1007/s12542-009-0021-9. http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/~elicki/ELICKI_GUERSU_2009_PalZ_CambrianBivalves.pdf. 
3. ^ Santiago-Blay, Jorge A.; Soleglad, Michael E.; Fet, Victor (2004). "A redescription and family placement of Uintascorpio Perry, 1995 from the Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation (middle Eocene) of Colorado, USA (Scorpiones: Buthidae)". Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 10: 7–16. ISSN - 9518 1576 - 9518. http://science.marshall.edu/fet/Euscorpius/fetpubl/Uintascorpio.pdf. 
4. ^ Mey, Wolfram (2011). "On the systematic position of Baltimartyria Skalski, 1995 and description of a new species from Baltic amber (Lepidoptera, Micropterigidae)". ZooKeys 130: 331–342. doi:10.3897/zookeys.130.1480. http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/1480/on-the-systematic-position-of-baltimartyria-skalski-1995-and-description-of-a-new-species-from-baltic-amber-lepidoptera-. 
5. ^ Olmi, Massimo; Guglielmino, Adalgisa (2011). Revision of fossil species of Dryinus belonging to lamellatus group, with description of a new species (Hymenoptera, Dryinidae). 130. pp. 505–514. doi:10.3897/zookeys.130.133. http://www.pensoft.net/J_FILES/1/articles/1335/1335-G-3-layout.pdf. 
6. ^ Engel, M.S. (1995). "A new fossil snake-fly species from Baltic amber (Raphidioptera: Inocelliidae)". Psyche 102 (3-4): 187–193. doi:10.1155/1995/23626. http://psyche.entclub.org/102/102-187.html. 
7. ^ "Introduction," Chure (2001). Pg. 20.
8. ^ Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". http://www.polychora.com/dinolist.html. Retrieved 2008-08-07. 
9. ^ Montague, Jeremy. "Dr. Montague's Database". http://www.barry.edu/bio300/pdf/montague%20dino%20web%20data%2012-3-2005.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-29. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Sampson, S.D. 1995. Two new horned dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana, with a phylogenetic analysis of the Centrosaurinae (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15 (4): pp. 743-360.
11. ^ Le Loeuff, J. 1995. Ampelosaurus atacis (nov. gen., nov. sp), un nouveau Titanosauridae (Dinosauria, Saurpoda) du Crétacé Supérieur de la haute vallée de l'Aude (France). C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 321 (sér. II a): pp. 693- 696.
12. ^ ^{a b} Nesov, L.A. 1995. Dinosaurs of northern Eurasia: new data about assemblages, ecology and palaeogeography. University of Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg: 156 pages (in Russian).
13. ^ Galton, P.M. 1995. The species of the basal hypsilophodontid dinosaur Thescelosaurus Gilmore (Ornithischia; Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Neues Jahrbuch fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie. Abhandlungen 198 (3): pp. 297-311.
14. ^ Boyd, Clint A.; Brown, Caleb M.; Scheetz, Rodney D.; and Clarke, Julia A. (2009). "Taxonomic revision of the basal neornithischian taxa Thescelosaurus and Bugenasaura". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29 (3): 758–770. doi:10.1671/039.029.0328. 
15. ^ Long, R.A. and P.A. Murry. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum Nat. History Sci. Bull. 4: pp. 1-254.
16. ^ ^{a b} Olshevsky vide Olshevsky, G. 1995. The Origin and Evolution of the Tyrannosaurids. Kyoryugaku Saizensen [Dino-Frontline] 9: 92-119 (part 1); 10: 75-99 (part 2)
17. ^ Accarie, H., B. Beaudoin , J. Dejax, G. Fries, J.-C. Michard, and P. Taquet. 1995. Decouverte d’un Dinosaure Theropode nouveau (Genusaurus sisteronis n. g., n. sp.) dans l’Albien marin de Sisteron (Alpes de Haute-Provence, France) et extension au Cretace inferieur de la lignee ceratosaurienne. Compte rendu hebdomadaire des seances de l’Academie des Sciences Paris, tomo 320, 2nd series : pp. 327-334.
18. ^ Coria, R.A. and L. Salgado. 1995. A new giant carnivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Patagonia. Nature. 377: pp. 224-226.
19. ^ Hunt, A.P., M.G. Lockley, S.G. Lucas, and C.A. Meyer. 1995 [George Olshevsky notes 1995, not 1994]. The global sauropod fossil record. In: Aspects of sauropod paleobiology (M.G. Lockley, V.F. dos Santos, C.A. Meyer, and A. Hunt, eds,). Revista de Geociencias, Gaia 10: pp. 261-279.
20. ^ Olshevsky vide Olshevsky, G [with illustrations by T.L. Ford and S. Yamamoto]. 1995. The Origin and Evolution of the Ornithopods. Kyoryugaku Saizensen [Dino-Frontline] 11: 98-119 (part 1); 12: 96-117 (part 2); 13: 97-109 (part 3, 1996);
21. ^ Zhang, Y., and Z. Yang. 1994 [Geroge Olshevsky notes 2005, not 2004]. A new complete ostology of Prosauropoda in Lufeng Basin Yunnan China, Jingshanosaurus. Yunnan Publishing House of Science and Technology, Kunming, China: pp. 1- 100.
22. ^ ^{a b c} Welles, H. P. Powell & Pickering vide Pickering, S. 1995. A fractal scaling in dinosaurology project (2nd revised printing). Capitola, California: 478 pages;
23. ^ Carpenter, K., D. Dilkes, and D.B. Weishampel. 1995. The Dinosaurs of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Kansas). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 15 (2): pp. 275-297.
24. ^ Chure, D.J. 1995. A reassessment of the gigantic theropod Saurophagus maximus from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Oklahoma, USA. Sixth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota: pp. 103-106.
25. ^ Coombs, W.P. 1995. A nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Texas. J. Vert. Paleontol. 15 (2): pp. 298-312.