Gresslyosaurus is a genus of plateosaurian sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period, around 214 to 204 million years ago, in France, Germany, Norway, Greenland and Switzerland.
Halitherium is an extinct dugongid sea cow that arose in the late Eocene, then became extinct during the early Oligocene. Its fossils are common in European shales. Inside its flippers were finger bones that did not stick out. Halitherium also had the remnants of back legs, which did not show externally. However, it did have a basic femur, joined to a reduced pelvis. Halitherium also had elongated ribs, presumably to increase lung capacity to provide fine control of buoyancy. A 2014 review presented the opinion that the genus is dubious.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. 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 1856.
Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached lengths of 3 metres (9.8 ft), while others probably did not exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft). They are almost exclusively found in freshwater environments. The various species are thought to have been opportunistic aquatic predators.
Quercygale is an extinct genus of placental mammals from the clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in Europe during the early to late Eocene.
The Geisel valley is a valley in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, situated west of Merseburg, Saalekreis district. It is named after the River Geisel which rises in Mücheln and is a tributary of the Saale, just under 25 km (16 mi) long.
Listrognathosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian. Fossils date back to the middle Paleocene epoch. In 1997, the generic name replaced that of Leidyosuchus for the species L. multidentatus. "L." multidentalis was first described by Charles Mook in 1930 on the basis of the holotype AMNH 5179, consisting of a partial vertebral column, mandible, partial left ilium, and left tibia, found from a locality in Torrejon Arroyo, New Mexico.
Pterodon is an extinct genus of hyaenodont in the family Hyainailouridae, containing five species. The type species Pterodon dasyuroides is known exclusively from the late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene of western Europe. The genus was first erected by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1839, who said that Georges Cuvier presented one of its fossils to a conference in 1828 but died before he could make a formal description of it. It was the second hyaenodont genus with taxonomic validity after Hyaenodon, but this resulted in taxonomic confusion over the validities of the two genera by other taxonomists. Although the taxonomic status of Pterodon was revised during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a wastebasket taxon for other hyaenodont species found in Africa and Asia. Today, only the type species is recognized as belonging to the genus while four others are pending reassessment to other genera.
Lesmesodon is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct family Proviverridae within extinct superfamily Hyaenodontoidea, that lived during the Early to Middle Eocene. It was found in France and in the Messel Pit in Germany. Lesmesodon was a weasel-sized carnivorous mammal.
Hyainailouros ("hyena-cat") is an extinct polyphyletic genus of hyaenodont belonging to the family Hyainailouridae that lived during the early to middle Miocene, of which there were at least three species spread across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Acanthostichus hispaniolicus is an extinct species of ant in the subfamily Dorylinae known from a group of possibly Miocene fossils found on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. A. hispaniolicus is the first species of the ant genus Acanthostichus to have been described from fossils found in Dominican amber, and is the only species of Acanthostichus found in the West Indies.
Apterodon is an extinct genus of hyaenodontid mammals that lived from the late Eocene through the middle Oligocene epoch in Africa and Europe. It is closely related to the African Quasiapterodon, and together it, they comprise the hyainailurid subfamily Apterodontinae.
Eurotherium is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from extinct family Hyaenodontidae that lived from the early to middle Eocene in Europe.
Nyctitheriidae is a family of extinct eulipotyphlan insectivores known from the Paleocene and Eocene epochs of North America and Asia and persisting into the Oligocene of Europe. Several genera, including Nyctitherium, Paradoxonycteris, and Wyonycteris, have initially been described as bats, although the family is more frequently placed in the order Eulipotyphla.
Propristis is an extinct genus of sawfish that lived from the Eocene to the Miocene. It contains two valid species, P. schweinfurthi and P. mayumbensis. It has been found in Egypt, Cabinda, Morocco, Qatar, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Isolated rostral denticles are the most common remains, but rostra have also been found.
This is an overview of the paleofauna of the Eocene Messel Formation as explored by the Messel Pit excavations in Germany. A former quarry and now UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Messel Formation preserves what once were a series of anoxic lakes surrounded by a sub-tropical rainforest during the Middle Eocene, approximately 47 Ma.
Sinopidae is an extinct family of predatory placental mammals from extinct order Hyaenodonta. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from early to middle Eocene deposits in North America, Europe and Asia.
Hyaenodontoidea is a superfamily of extinct predatory mammals from extinct order Hyaenodonta. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from early Eocene to early Miocene deposits in North America, Europe and Asia.
Proviverrinae is an extinct subfamily of placental mammals within the extinct order Hyaenodonta. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from early to late Eocene deposits in Europe.
The Geiseltal fossil deposit is located in the former lignite district of the Geiseltal south of the city of Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is an important site of now extinct plants and animals from the Middle Eocene period 48 to 41 million years ago. There is evidence that coal was first mined in the Geiseltal in 1698, but the first fossils only came to light by chance at the beginning of the 20th century. Scheduled scientific excavations began in 1925 by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Interrupted by World War II, the investigations can be divided into two research phases. Due to the increasing depletion of the raw material deposits, the excavations gradually came to a standstill in the mid-1980s and finally ended at the beginning of the third millennium.
