1997 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 1997.

Fungi

newly named

Birds

Newly named birds

This section requires expansion with: section about prehistoric birds described in 1997.

Dinosaurs

• Paleontologist Karen Chin receives a coprolite that was excavated during 1995 from strata dating back to the Maastrichtian in Saskatchewan, Canada. The specimen was about 17 inches (44 cm) long and contained fragments of bone. Due to its size, contents and age, the coprolite was believed to have been the remains of Tyrannosaurus rex feces. This discovery was announced in a 1998 paper published in the journal Nature.
• A Saharan expedition under the leadership of Paul Sereno yields fruit when a team member stumbles on the bones and skull of Nigersaurus taqueti. During this and a subsequent 1999 expedition about 80% of the animal's skeleton were discovered. Later in the year of the second expedition, a formal description of the animal was published.
• French paleontologist Philippe Taquet reports the finding of fossilized theropod embryos preserved in Portuguese dinosaur eggs. These eggs were from the Jurassic period dating to about 140 million years ago, nearly twice as old as any previously recovered dinosaurs embryos, which had only been known from about 70 million years ago in Late Cretaceous strata.
• Psittacosaurus gastroliths documented.^[3]
• Panoplosaurus gastroliths documented.^[4]

Newly named dinosaurs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list^[5] and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.^[6]

Name	Status	Authors		Notes	Images
"Araucanoraptor"[7]	Nomen nudum later called Neuquenraptor	Novas	et al.		Archaeoceratops Gojirasaurus Unenlagia The unpublished name "Wyomingraptor" was a junior synonym of Allosaurus.
Archaeoceratops[8]	Valid taxon	Dong Zhiming	Azuma
“Beelemodon”[9]	Nomen nudum	Robert Bakker
"Chihuahuasaurus"[10]	Nomen nudum later called Sonorasaurus	Ratkevich vide: Anonymous
"Cinizasaurus"	Nomen ex dissertatione	Heckert vide: Sterling J. Nesbitt Randall B. Irmis	William G. Parker
"Colossosaurus"	Nomen nudum later called Pelorosaurus	Mantell vide: Torrens
“Eohadrosaurus”	Nomen nudum. Found to be synonymous with Eolambia before a formal description could be published.	James Kirkland
Gojirasaurus[11]	Valid taxon	Kenneth Carpenter
Hudiesaurus[12]	Valid taxon	Dong Zhiming
"Microcephale"[13]	Nomen nudum	Paul Sereno
"Orcomimus"[14]	Nomen nudum	Triebold
Protarchaeopteryx[15]	Valid taxon	Ji Q.	Ji S.
Rinchenia[16]	Valid taxon	Rinchen Barsbold vide: Halszka Osmólska Phillip Currie	Rinchen Barsbold
Siluosaurus[17]	Nomen dubium.	Dong Zhiming
Unenlagia[18]	Valid taxon	Novas	Puerta
"Wyomingraptor"	Nomen nudum; junior synonym of Allosaurus	Robert Bakker as Anonymous

Exopaleontology

• Richard B. Hoover of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center photographs what he believes to be microfossils in the martian Murchison meteorite.

Plesiosaurs

Newly Named Plesiosaurs

Currently Valid Plesiosaur Genera Named in 1997
Name	Status	Authors	Images
Augustasaurus	Valid taxon	Sander Rieppel Bucher
Libonectes	Valid taxon	Welles (as Elasmosaurus morgani in 1949) Carpenter (as Libonectes morgani in 1997)	Libonectes
Maresaurus	Valid taxon	Gasparini

Synapsids

Non-mammalian

Humans

• Genetecist Michael Hammer reports findings that demonstrate that after the initial "out of Africa" radiation of modern humans at about 100,000 years ago, some humans eventually returned to Africa between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Pterosaurs

Newly Named Pterosaurs

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} hibbet, D.S.; Grimaldi, D.S. & Donoghue, M.J. (1997). "Fossil mushrooms from Miocene and Cretaceous ambers and the evolution of Homobasidiomycetes". American Journal of Botany 84 (8): 981–991. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/7/981. 
3. ^ Xu (1997). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.
4. ^ Carpenter (1997). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.
5. ^ Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". http://www.polychora.com/dinolist.html. Retrieved 2008-08-07. 
6. ^ Montague, Jeremy. "Dr. Montague's Database". http://www.barry.edu/bio300/pdf/montague%20dino%20web%20data%2012-3-2005.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-29. 
7. ^ Novas, F.E. 1997. South American Dinosaurs. In: Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (J. Currie and K. Padian, Eds.). Academic Press, San Diego, California/London, UK: pp. 678-689.
8. ^ Dong, Z.M. and Y. Azuma. 1997. On a primitive neoceratopsian from the Early Cretaceous. In: Sino-Japanese Slik Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press, Beijing: pp. 68-89.
9. ^ Bakker, R.T 1997. Raptor family values: Allosaur parents brought giant carcasses into their lair to feed their young. In: Dinofest International: Proceedings of a Symposium sponsored by Arizona State University (D.L. Wolberg, E. Stump, and G.D. Rosenberg, eds.). Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia: pp. 51-63.
10. ^ Ratkevich, R.P. 1997. Sonorasaurus: Dinosaur of the dessert. Tucson, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Publication Series vide [Anonymous] 1997.
11. ^ Carpenter, K. 1997. A giant coelophysoid (Ceratosauria) theropod from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, USA. Neües Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen, 205 (2): pp. 189-208.
12. ^ Dong, Z.-M. 1997. A Gigantic Sauropod (Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum gen. et. sp. nov.) from the Turpan Basin, China. In: Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.-M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press: pp. 102-110.
13. ^ Sereno, P.C. 1997. Systematics, evolution and polar wanderings of margin-headed dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Marginocephalia). In: The age of dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia (M.Benton, E. Kurochkin, M. Shishkin and D. Unwin, eds.). Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK.
14. ^ Triebold, M. 1997. The Sandy Site: small dinosaurs from the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Dinofest 1997: pp. 245-248.
15. ^ Ji, Q. and S. Ji. 1997. A Chinese archaeopterygian, Protarchaeopteryx gen. nov. Geological Science and Technology (Di Zhi Ke Ji) 238 (1997): pp. 38-41.
16. ^ Barsbold, 1997 vide Osmolska, H., P.J. Currie, and B. Barsbold. 2004. Oviraptorosauria, Chapter Eight: Holtz, T. R., Jr (2004) Tyrannosauroidea; Chapter Five. In: The Dinosauria (2nd edition, D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska, eds.). California University Press: pp. 165-183.
17. ^ Dong, Z.-M. 1997. A small ornithopod from Mazongshan area, Gansu Province, China. In: Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.- M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press, Beijing: pp. 24–26.
18. ^ Novas, F.E. and P.F. Puerta. 1997. New evidence concerning avian origins from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia. Nature 387: pp. 390- 392.

• Carpenter, K. (1997) Ankylosaurs. In J.O. farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman (eds.), The complete dinosaur, pp. 307–316. Bloomington Indiana University Press.
• Xu, X. (1997) A new psittacosaur (Psittacosaurus mazongshanensis sp. nov.) from Mazongshan area, Gansu province, China. In. Z.-M. Dong (ed.), Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition, pp. 48–67. Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Academia Sinica. Beijing: China Ocean Press.
• Sanders F, Manley K, Carpenter K. Gastroliths from the Lower Cretaceous sauropod Cedarosaurus weiskopfae. In: Tanke D.H, Carpenter K, editors. Mesozoic vertebrate life: new research inspired by the paleontology of Philip J. Currie. Indiana University Press; Bloomington, IN: 2001. pp. 166–180.