1840 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. 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 1840.
Anapsids
Newly named anapsids
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Preoccupied |
Fitzinger |
Unnamed unit (coal deposits) |
Preoccupied by a non-dinosaurian archosaur named by Geoffroy Saint-Hilare in 1833. Renamed Sphenosaurus. A procolophonid. |
Archosauromorphs
Newly named basal archosauromorphs
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Riley |
Stutchbury |
Late Triassic (?Rhaetian) |
An archosaur of unknown affinities |
Newly named dinosaurs
Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.
Name | Status | Authors | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Valid |
Fitzinger |
Junior synonym of Hylaeosaurus. | ||
Valid |
Fitzinger |
An iguanodont. New name for "Iguanodon" mantelli von Meyer (1832) (=Iguanodon anglicus Holl (1829)). |
Plesiosaurs
Newly named plesiosaurs
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Valid |
Owen |
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
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Valid |
Owen |
Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) |
A thalassophonean pliosaurid. | ||||
Valid |
Owen |
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
A pliosaurid. | ||||
Valid |
Owen |
Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) |
A microcleidid. | ||||
Valid |
Owen |
Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) |
A cryptoclidid. |
Mammals
Newly named cetaceans
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Valid taxon. |
Early Miocene (Burdigalian) |
Unnamed unit |
A squalodontid. |