1854 in paleontology

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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.

Expeditions, field work, and fossil discoveries edit

Institutions and organizations edit

Natural history museums edit

Scientific organizations edit

Scientific advances edit

Paleoanthropology edit

Paleobotany edit

Evolutionary biology edit

Exopaleontology edit

Extinction research edit

Micropaleontology edit

Invertebrate paleozoology edit

Trace fossils edit

Vertebrate paleozoology edit

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.

Research techniques edit

Fossil trade edit

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Regulation of fossil collection, transport, or sale edit

Fossil-related crime edit

Official symbols edit

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Ethics and practice edit

Hoaxes edit

Scandals edit

Unethical practice edit

People edit

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Deaths edit

Historiography and anthropology of paleontology edit

Pseudoscience edit

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Gaming edit

Literature edit

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]

Philately edit

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References edit

^ 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.
^ Leidy, J. 1854. Remarks on Bathygnathus borealis (Article XVI). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia (2nd Series) Volume VIII, part 4: pp. 449-451;
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d 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.
^ 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.

[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;

[owen1854-3] 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.

[sarjeant-fic-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.

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