Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoriclife 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 1995.
Plants
Conifers
Conifer research
Phipps, Osborne, & Stockey detail permineralized Pinus pollen cones from the Allenby FormationsPrinceton Chert site. The description is the first to include in-situ pollen ultrastructure and the cones are the oldest Pinus pollen cones that had been described to date. Affiliation with the Princeton chert organ taxa Pinus similkameenensis (leaves) and Pinus arnoldii (seed cones) was suggested.[2]
Fossil hunters working on behalf of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum discover a large coprolite from a theropod dinosaur in Maastrichtian strata. In 1997 it is sent to coprolite specialist Karen Chin, who determines that this specimen of fossilized feces was attributable to Tyrannosaurus rex. One year later, in 1998, Karen Chin and others publish a joint paper in Nature announcing the finding.
Paul Sereno lead an expedition to the Kem Kem region of southeastern Morocco. Among the fossils discovered is a partial skull of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. Significantly, it preserves a "complete and undistorted braincase" which would later be described in detail along with the structure of the inner ear of C. saharicus by Hans C. E. Larsson in 2001.[12]
Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.[13]
^Gini-Newman, Garfield; Graham, Elizabeth (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN9780070887398. OCLC46769716.
^Phipps, CJ; Osborn, JM; Stockey, RA (1995). "Pinus Pollen Cones from the Middle Eocene Princeton Chert (Allenby Formation) of British Columbia, Canada". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 156 (1): 117–124. doi:10.1086/297232. S2CID84598167.
^ abDe Andrade, M. L. (1995). "The ant genus Aphaenogaster in Dominican and Mexican amber (Amber Collection Stuttgart: Hymenoptera, Formicidae. IX: Pheidolini)". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). 223: 1–11.
^ abcdeVierbergen, G.; Scheven, J. (1995). "Nine new species and a new genus of Dominican amber ants of the tribe (Cephalotini Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Creation Research Society Quarterly. 32 (3): 158–170.
^ abcdefde Andrade, M. L.; Baroni Urbani, C. (1999). "Diversity and adaptation in the ant genus Cephalotes, past and present". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). 271: 537–538.
^ abNesov, L.A. (1995). "Dinosaurs of northern Eurasia: new data about assemblages, ecology and palaeogeography (in Russian)". University of Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg: 156.
^ abSampson, S.D. (1995). "Two new horned dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana, with a phylogenetic analysis of the Centrosaurinae (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (4): 743–760. Bibcode:1995JVPal..15..743S. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011259.
^Le Loeuff, J. (1995). "Ampelosaurus atacis (nov. gen., nov. sp), un nouveau Titanosauridae (Dinosauria, Saurpoda) du Crétacé Supérieur de la haute vallée de l'Aude (France)". C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris. 321 (sér. II a): 693–696.
^Boyd, C. A.; Brown, C. M.; Scheetz, R. D.; Clarke, J. A. (2009). "Taxonomic revision of the basal neornithischian taxa Thescelosaurus and Bugenasaura". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (3): 758–770. Bibcode:2009JVPal..29..758B. doi:10.1671/039.029.0328. S2CID84273584.
^Long, R.A. and P.A. Murry. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum Nat. History Sci. Bull. 4: pp. 1-254.
^ abOlshevsky vide Olshevsky, G. 1995. The Origin and Evolution of the Tyrannosaurids. Kyoryugaku Saizensen [Dino-Frontline] 9: 92-119 (part 1); 10:75-99 (part 2)
^Accarie, H., B. Beaudoin, J. Dejax, G. Fries, J.-C. Michard, and P. Taquet. 1995. Decouverte d’un Dinosaure Theropode nouveau (Genusaurus sisteronis n. g., n. sp.) dans l’Albien marin de Sisteron (Alpes de Haute-Provence, France) et extension au Cretace inferieur de la lignee ceratosaurienne. Compte rendu hebdomadaire des séances de l’Académie des Sciences Paris, tomo 320, 2nd
series : pp. 327-334.
^Hunt, A.P., M.G. Lockley, S.G. Lucas, and C.A. Meyer. 1995 [George Olshevsky notes 1995, not 1994]. The global sauropod fossil record. In:Aspects of sauropod paleobiology (M.G. Lockley, V.F. dos Santos, C.A. Meyer, and A. Hunt, eds,). Revista de Geociencias, Gaia 10: pp. 261-279.
^Olshevsky vide Olshevsky, G [with illustrations by T.L. Ford and S. Yamamoto]. 1995. The Origin and Evolution of the Ornithopods. Kyoryugaku Saizensen [Dino-Frontline] 11: 98-119 (part 1); 12: 96-117 (part 2); 13: 97-109 (part 3, 1996);
^Zhang, Y., and Z. Yang. 1994 [George Olshevsky notes 1995, not 1994]. A new complete ostology of Prosauropoda in Lufeng Basin Yunnan China, Jingshanosaurus. Yunnan Publishing House of Science and Technology, Kunming, China: pp. 1-100.
^ abcWelles, H. P. Powell & Pickering vide Pickering, S. 1995. A fractal scaling in dinosaurology project (2nd revised printing). Capitola, California: 478
pages;
^Carpenter, K.; Dilkes, D.; Weishampel, D.B. (1995). "The Dinosaurs of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Kansas)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (2): 275–297. Bibcode:1995JVPal..15..275C. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011230.
^Chure, D.J. 1995. A reassessment of the gigantic theropod Saurophagus maximus from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Oklahoma, USA. Sixth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota: pp. 103-106.
^Coombs, W.P. 1995. A nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Texas. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 15 (2):pp. 298-312.
^Herculano M. F. de Alvarenga (1995). "Um Primitivo Membro da Ordem Galliformes (Aves) do Terciário Médio da Bacia de Taubaté, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil". Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 67: 33–44.
^David J. Varricchio; Luis M. Chiappe (1995). "A New Enantiornithine Bird from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (1): 201–204. Bibcode:1995JVPal..15..201V. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011219.
^Claudia P. Tambussi (1995). "The Fossil Rheiformes from Argentina". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 121–129.
^Dieter S. Peters (1995). "Idiornis tuberculata N. Spec. Ein Weiterer Ungewohnlicher Vogel aus der Grube Messel (Aves: Gruiformes: Cariamidae: Idiornithinae)". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 107–119.
^Cécile Mourer-Chauviré (2002). "Idiornis Oberholser, 1899 (Aves, Gruiformes, Cariamae, Idiornithidae): a Junior Synonym of Dynamopterus Milne-Edwards, 1892 (Paleogene, Phosphorites du Quercy, France)". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie. 270 (1): 13–22. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2013/0355.
^ abCécile Mourer-Chauviré (1995). "The Messelornithidae (Aves: Gruiformes) from the Palaeocene of France". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 95–105.
^Zlatozar N. Boev (1995). "Middle Villafranchian Birds from Varshets (Western Balkan Range-Bulgaria)". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 259–269.
^ abcSteven D. Emslie (1995). "A Catastrophic Death Assemblage of a New Species of Cormorant and Other Seabirds from the Late Pliocene of Florida". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (2): 313–330. Bibcode:1995JVPal..15..313E. doi:10.1080/02724634.1995.10011232.
^Herculano M. F. de Alvarenga (1995). "A Large and Probably Flightless Anhinga from the Miocene of Chile". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 149–161.
