1854 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 1854.

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	Images
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	Lesotho South Africa Zimbabwe	A massospondylid. a Small Plant-Eating Sauropodomorph.	Massospondylus
Nuthetes [3]	Valid	Sir Richard Owen		Early Cretaceous (Berriasian)	Purbeck Group	England France	A dromaeosaurid.	Nuthetes
Pachyspondylus [3]	Junior synonym.	Sir Richard Owen		Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian)	Upper Elliot Formation	South Africa	Junior subjective synonym of Massospondylus .

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.