1996 in paleontology

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 1996.

Plants

Angiosperms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Palaeocarpinus aspinosa[2]	Sp nov	Valid	Manchester & Chen	Paleocene Middle Paleocene	Fort Union Formation	USA Wyoming	A betulaceous fruit
Palaeocarpinus orientalis[3]	Sp nov	Valid	Manchester & Guo	Paleocene	Wulungu Depression	China	A betulaceous fruit

Arthropods

Newly named crustaceans

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Cancer (Metacarcinus) starri[4]	Valid	Berglund & Goedert	Early Miocene	Clallam & Pysht Formations	USA ( Washington)	A crab

Newly named insects

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Allopetalia europaea[5]	Sp nov	Jr synonym	Nel, Arillo, & Martínez-Delclòs	Messinian		France	An Aeshnid dragonfly. Moved to Boyeria europaea in 1997	Boyeria europaea
Burmomyrma rossi[6]	Gen et sp. nov	Valid	Dlussky	Late Aptian to Early Cenomanian	Burmese amber	Myanmar	A possible Aneuretin ant	Burmomyrma rossi
Cerdanyagrion[5]	Gen et sp nov	valid	Nel, Arillo, & Martínez-Delclòs	Vallesian/Turolian		Spain	A Megapodagrionid damselfly	Cerdanyagrion miocenicus
Haidomyrmex cerberus[7]	Gen et sp. nov	Valid	Dlussky	Late Aptian to Early Cenomanian	Burmese amber	Myanmar	A Sphecomyrmin ant	Haidomyrmex cerberus
Somatochlora brisaci[5]	Sp nov	Valid	Nel, Arillo, & Martínez-Delclòs	Turolian	Montagne d'Andance	France	A Corduliid dragonfly	Somatochlora brisaci
Sympetrum cantalensis	Sp nov	Valid	Nel, Arillo, & Martínez-Delclòs	Messinian		France	A Libellulid dragonfly	Sympetrum cantalensis
Vulcagrion[5]	Gen et comb et 2 sp nov	valid	Nel, Arillo, & Martínez-Delclòs	Messinian		France	A Megapodagrionid damselfly, three species	Vulcagrion andancensis

Fish

Cartilaginous fish

Research

• Duffin et al (1996) describes chondrichthyan remains from the Itaituba Formation of the Amazon Basin of Brazil and deems Anachronistes to be a junior synonym of Cooleyella.^[8]

New taxa

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Bransonella lingulata[9]	Sp nov	Valid	Ivanov & Ginter	Early Carboniferous (Serpukhovian)	Kalinovskie Vyselki Quarry	Russia	A xenacanth
Cooleyella amazonensis[8]	Sp nov	Valid	Duffin et. al.	Late Carboniferous	Itaituba Formation	Brazil	A anachronistid

Amphibians

Temnospondyls

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Tatrasuchus[10]	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Maryańska & Shishkin	Middle Triassic		Poland	A cyclotosaurid

Plesiosaurs

New taxa

Name Status Authors Location Notes Images Pachycostasaurus Valid Cruickshank Martill UK Plesiopleurodon Valid Carpenter USA ( Wyoming) The Last of the Pliosaurs. Plesiopleurodon Thalassiodracon Valid Storrs Taylor UK Thalassiodracon

Dinosaurs

• In the summer excavation resumed on the Talkeetna Mountains Hadrosaur, discovered in a quarry near the Glenn Highway, approximately 150 miles northeast of Anchorage.^[11]

Newly named dinosaurs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.^[12]

Name	Status	Authors		Location	Notes	Images
"Angaturama'"[13]	Junior synonym of Irritator	Kellner	Campos
Bagaraatan[14]	Valid taxon	Halszka Osmólska		Mongolia
Deltadromeus[15]	Valid taxon	Paul Sereno Duthiel Iarochene Larsson	Lyon Magwene Sidor Varricchio Jeffrey A. Wilson.	Egypt Morocco		Deltadromeus
Gasparinisaura[16]	Valid taxon	Rodolfo Coria	Salgado	Argentina		Gasparinisaura
Irritator[17]	Valid taxon	Martill Cruickshank Frey	Small M. Clarke	Brazil		Irritator
Ligabueino[18]	Valid taxon	Jose Bonaparte		Argentina
"Jensenosaurus"[19]	Junior synonym of Supersaurus	George Olshevsky vide: B. D. Curtice Stadtman	L. J. Curtice,			Supersaurus
"Luanpingosaurus"	Junior synonym of Psittacosaurus	Cheng Zhengwu vide: Chen P. Cheng Zhengwu	et al.
"Magulodon"[20]	Nomen nudum	Kranz Cheng Zhengwu	et al.
Neovenator[21]	Valid taxon	Hutt Martill	Barker	UK		Neovenator
Parvicursor[22]	Valid taxon	Karhu	Rautian	Mongolia
Patagonykus[23]	Valid taxon	Novas		Argentina		Patagonykus
Pawpawsaurus[24]	Valid taxon	Lee		USA ( Texas)
Pellegrinisaurus[25]	Valid taxon	Salgado		Argentina
Qinlingosaurus[26]	Valid taxon	Xue Zhang Y. X. Bi	Yue Chen D.	China
Rayososaurus[18]	Valid taxon	Jose Bonaparte		Argentina
Shanyangosaurus[26]	Valid taxon	Xue Zhang Y. X. Bi	Yue Chen D.	China
Siamotyrannus[27]	Valid taxon	Buffetaut Suteethorn	Tong	Thailand
Sigilmassasaurus[28]	Valid taxon	Dale A. Russell		Morocco
Sinosauropteryx[29]	Valid taxon	Ji Q.	Ji S.	China		Sinosauropteryx

Birds

Newly named birds

Name	Novelt	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Anas ganii [30]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Nikolay I. Burchak-Abramovich K. L. Sushpanov A. L. David	Late Early Pleistocene		Moldova	An Anatidae.
Anas marecula [31]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Storrs L. Olson Pierre Jouventin	Holocene	Amsterdam Island	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	An Anatidae.
Anhinga fraileyi [32]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Kenneth E. Campbell, jr.	Late Miocene	Huayquerian	Peru	An Anhingidae.
"Branta" minor [33]	Valid	Eugen Kessler Erika Gal	Late Miocene	MN 9		Moldova	An Aves Incertae Sedis, it is not an Anatidae.
Copepteryx hexeris [34]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Storrs L. Olson Yoshikazu Hasegawa	Late Oligocene	Ainoshima Formation	Japan	A Pelecaniformes, Plotopteridae Howard, 1969, this is the type species of the new genus.
Copepteryx titan [34]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Storrs L. Olson Yoshikazu Hasegawa	Late Oligocene	Ainoshima Formation	Japan	A Pelecaniformes, Plotopteridae Howard, 1969.
Eoalulavis hoyasi [35]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	José L. Sanz Luis M. Chiappe Bernardo P. Pérez-Moreno Angela D. Buscaliono José J. Moratalla Francisco Ortega Francisco J. Poyato-Ariza	Early Cretaceous	Neocomian	Spain: Castilla-La Mancha	An Ornithothoraces Chiappe & Calvo, 1994, Enantiornithes. Walker, 1981, this is the type species of the new genus.
Nanantius valifanovi [36]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Evgeny N. Kurochkin	Late Cretaceous	Late Campanian	Mongolia	An Enantiornithes Walker, 1981, Alexornithidae Brodkorb, 1976, Gobipteryginae Elzanowski, 1974.
Nandayus vorohuensis [37]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Eduardo P. Tonni Jorge Noriega	Late Pliocene	Orohué Formation	Argentina	A Psittacidae.
Otis bessarabicus [33]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Eugen Kessler Erika Gal	Late Miocene	MN 9	Moldova	An Otididae.
Struthio coppensi [38]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Cécile Mourer-Chauviré Brigitte Senut Martin Pickford Pierre Mein	Early Miocene	Karingarab	Namibia	A Struthionidae.
?Tringa grigorescui [33]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Eugen Kessler Erika Gal	Middle Miocene	MN 8	Romania	A Scolopacidae, not sure it is a Tringa.
Vorona berivotrensis [39]	Gen. nov. et Sp. nov.	Valid	Catharine A. Forster Luis M. Chiappe David W. Krause Scott D. Sampson	Late Cretaceous	Campanian, Maevarano Formation	Madagascar	An Ornithothoraces Chiappe et Calvo, 1994 .

Pterosaurs

New taxa

Name Status Authors Location Notes Kepodactylus Valid Harris, J.D. Carpenter USA ( Colorado)

Fossil eggs

New ootaxa

Name Status Authors Location Notes Dispersituberoolithus Valid Zelenitsky et al. Canada ( Alberta) Probably laid by a primitive neognath.[40] Gobioolithus Valid Mikhailov Formerly called "Gobipteryx eggs", though they are not presently considered to be eggs of Gobipteryx.[41]

Synapsids

Mammals

New taxa

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Stenoplesictis indigenus[42]	Sp. nov	Jr synonym	Dashzeveg	Late Eocene	Ergilin Dzo Formation	Mongolia	Moved to the genus Alagtsavbaatar in 2016[43]
Stenoplesictis simplex[42]	Sp. nov	Jr synonym	Dashzeveg	Late Eocene	Ergilin Dzo Formation	Mongolia	Deemed a junior synonym of Asiavorator gracilis in 2016[43]