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Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch. It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments. Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term has been used since 1822 formed from Greek παλαιός, ὄν, and λόγος.
Invertebrate paleontology is sometimes described as invertebrate paleozoology or invertebrate paleobiology. Whether it is considered to be a subfield of paleontology, paleozoology, or paleobiology, this discipline is the scientific study of prehistoric invertebrates by analyzing invertebrate fossils in the geologic record.
The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press, is a definitive multi-authored work of some 50 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and covering every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant invertebrate animals. The prehistoric invertebrates are described as to their taxonomy, morphology, paleoecology, stratigraphic and paleogeographic range. However, taxa with no fossil record whatsoever have just a very brief listing.
The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are traditionally considered to have been composed of microgranular calcite. Like all forams, they were single-celled organisms. In advanced forms the test wall was differentiated into two or more layers. Loeblich and Tappan, 1988, gives a range from the Lower Silurian to the Upper Permian, with the fusulinid foraminifera going extinct with the Permian–Triassic extinction event. While the latter is true, a more supported projected timespan is from the Mid-Carboniferous period.
The Miliolida are an order of foraminifera with calcareous, porcelacous tests that are imperforate and commonly have a pseudochitinous lining. Tests are composed of randomly oriented calcite needles that have a high proportion of magnesium along with organic material. Tests lack pores and generally have multiple chambers.
Eshanosaurus is a genus of a dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period. It is known only from a fossil partial lower jawbone, found in China. It may be a therizinosaurian, and if so the earliest known coelurosaur.
Trilophosaurus is a lizard-like trilophosaurid allokotosaur known from the Late Triassic of North America. It was a herbivore up to 2.5 m long. It had a short, unusually heavily built skull, equipped with massive, broad flattened cheek teeth with sharp shearing surfaces for cutting up tough plant material. Teeth are absent from the premaxilla and front of the lower jaw, which in life were probably equipped with a horny beak.
Iratusaurus is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl within the family Dissorophidae. It was described by Gubin (1980) on the basis of a fragmentary posterior skull. It is estimated to have been comparably large to Kamacops, another Russian dissorophid, but little more can be said about it, and it is rarely mentioned in comparative descriptions and has never been tested in a phylogenetic analysis. Distinguishing features include a large, triangular otic notch and a median crest on the postparietals.
Rileymillerus is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian from the Late Triassic Post Quarry in the Dockum Group of Texas that was described by John Bolt and Sankar Chatterjee in 2000. The holotype, a nearly complete skull with articulated jaws, is housed at the Museum of Texas Tech University. The genus is named for Riley Miller, who allowed Chatterjee to work on the Post Quarry, and the species is named for the paleontologist John Cosgriff.
Schoenfelderpeton is an extinct genus of prehistoric amphibian. It is a sister taxon to Leptorophus tener.
Dyoplax is an extinct genus of pseudosuchian archosaur, possibly an erpetosuchid. Fossils have been found from the type locality within the upper Schilfsandstein Formation in Stuttgart, Germany. The holotype specimen was a natural cast of a nearly complete skeleton that lacked only parts of the tail and limb bones.
Lagenida is an order of benthic foraminiferal protists in which the tests (shells) are monolamellar, with walls composed of optically and ultra-structurally radiate calcite, with the crystallographic c-axes perpendicular to the surface. Lagenids first appear in the Upper Silurian and continue to the Recent. They are currently divided into two superfamilies, the older Robuloidacea which range from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) and the younger Nodosariacea, ranging from the Permian to Recent.
Discorbis is a genus of benthic Foraminifera, that made its first appearance during the Eocene. Its present distribution is cosmopolitan.
Kaatedocus is a genus of flagellicaudatan sauropod known from the middle Late Jurassic of northern Wyoming, United States. It is known from well-preserved skull and cervical vertebrae which were collected in the lower part of the Morrison Formation. The type and only species is Kaatedocus siberi, described in 2012 by Emanuel Tschopp and Octávio Mateus.
Pseudospirocyclina is a genus of large planispirally coiled agglutinated benthic forams with a complex interior known from the upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) of Portugal and Morocco.
Saudia is a genus of large discoidal to reniform forams, with a relatively thick test and complex interior, composed of agglutinated matter, or microgranular calcite. Saudia is known from the Paleocene to middle Eocene of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the balkans. Related genera include Vania, Sornayina, and Haurania.
Reissella is a genus of benthic forams with a test of microgranular calcite from the upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Israel. The test starts off planispirally enrolled and involute but later may tend to uncoil and flare with as many as ten chambers in the final whorl. The interior as with other spirocyclinids is complex. Other Late Cretaceous spirocyclinids include Qataria and Sornayina.
Machairoceratops, previously known as the "Wahweap centrosaurine B", is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Wahweap Formation of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah, United States.
Shingopana is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous Galula Formation of Tanzania. It is known from only the type species, S. songwensis. Gorscak & O'Connor's phylogenetic testing suggest Shingopana is more closely related to the South American titanosaur family of Aeolosaurini than any of the titanosaurs found so far in North & South Africa.
The Micropholidae are an extinct family of dissorophoid temnospondyls known from Late Carboniferous to Early Triassic strata in the United States and South Africa.
References
- ↑ Sornayina in GSI Paleontology
- ↑ A.R.Loeblich & H.Tappan 1964. Sarcodina, Chiefly "Thecamoebians" and Foraminiferida. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part C, Protista 2.
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