1912 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 1912.

Plants

Angiosperms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Synonymized taxa	Notes	Images
Atriplex borealis [2]	Comb nov	jr synonym	(Heer) Laurent	Paleocene late Paleocene	Menat Formation	France Puy-de-Dôme		Redescribed as a saltbush species. Moved from Anchietea borealis in 1859. Moved to Palaeocarpinus borealis in 2021.

Arthropod paleontology

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Burgessia	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Walcott	Cambrian Miaolingian	Stephen Formation Burgess Shale	Canada British Columbia	A stem arthropod of uncertain affinities. The type species is B. bella	Burgessia bella
Leanchoilia	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Walcott	Cambrian Miaolingian	Stephen Formation Burgess Shale	Canada British Columbia	A leanchoiliid megacheirian The type species is L. superlata	Leanchoilia superlata
Waptia [3]	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Walcott	Cambrian Miaolingian	Stephen Formation Burgess Shale	Canada British Columbia	A hymenocarin megacheirian The type species is W. fieldensis	Waptia fieldensis
Yohoia	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Walcott	Cambrian Miaolingian	Stephen Formation Burgess Shale	Canada British Columbia	A yohoiid megacheirian The type species is Y. tenuis	Yohoia tenuis

Vertebrate paleontology

non-mammalian synapsids

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Location	Notes	Images
Alopecorhinus	Valid			South Africa
Emydochampsa	Valid			South Africa
Emydops	Valid	Broom		South Africa Zambia
Galeops	Synonym of Emydops.	Broom
Ictidopsis	Synonym of Thrinaxodon .
Taurops	Valid	Broom
Tritheledon	Valid	Broom		South Africa

Mammalians

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Location	Notes	Images
Stegomastodon [4]	Valid	Pohlig		United States Mexico

Dinosaurs

Taxon	Novelty	Status	Author(s)	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Saurolophus osborni [5]	Gen. et sp. nov.	Valid	Brown	Maastrichtian	Horseshoe Canyon Formation	Alberta	A hadrosaurid with a horn-like crest on its head

Expeditions, field work, and fossil discoveries

• William Edmund Cutler first began collecting fossils, choosing the mouth of Kneehills Creek in Alberta as a prospecting site. According to paleontologist Darren Tanke, Cutler was motivated by "commercial gain". ^[6]
• Charles H. Sternberg and his sons began working under a contract with the Geological Survey of Canada, which at the time was responsible for maintaining the National Museum of Canada. Lawrence Lambe occupied a supervisory position in the project. The Sternbergs were in competition with Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History through a period that came to be known as the Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush.

Institutions and organizations

Natural history museums

• The Calgary Public Museum of Alberta, Canada moved to occupy a single floor of the city's Memorial Park Library Building. ^[6]

Popular culture

Literature

• The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published. This novel was the first major fictional portrayal of dinosaurs in the 20th century. It was also the first work of fiction to depict dinosaurs as surviving somewhere in a remote wilderness refuge. Conan Doyle depicted the novel's dinosaurs as cold blooded and stupid. This accurately reflected the scientific thinking of the period, but is now obsolete. Paleontologist William A. S. Sarjeant has characterized Conan Doyle's dinosaurs as otherwise "excellently described".Conan Doyle also incorrectly accepted the prevailing scientific consensus of the period that pterosaurs were poor fliers who depended on gliding to travel. Nevertheless, Sarjeant also noted that while Conan Doyle underestimated pterosaur flying abilities, he anticipated the later scientific conclusion that they were social animals.

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. Correa-Narvaez, J. E.; Manchester, S. R. (2021). "Distribution and Morphological Diversity of Palaeocarpinus (Betulaceae) from the Paleogene of the Northern Hemisphere". The Botanical Review. 88 (2): 161–203. doi:10.1007/s12229-021-09258-y. S2CID   237795532.
3. Vannier, Jean; Aria, Cédric; Taylor, Rod; Caron, Jean-Bernard (2018-06-01). "Waptia fieldensis Walcott, a mandibulate arthropod from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale". Royal Society Open Science. 5 (6) 172206. doi:10.1098/rsos.172206. PMC   6030330 . PMID   30110460.
4. Pohlig, H., 1912, Sur une vieille mandibule de Tetracaulodon ohioticum Blum, avec defense in situ: Bulletin Societe Belge Geologique, v. 26, p. 187-193.
5. Brown, B (1912). "A crested dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 31: 131–136.
6. D. H. Tanke. 2010. Lost in plain sight: rediscovery of William E. Cutler's missing Eoceratops. In M. J. Ryan, B. J. Chinnery-Allgeier, D. A. Eberth (eds.), New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 541-550.