2009 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 2009.

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Important taxa described (but not necessarily validly named) in 2009

Arthropods

Main article: 2009 in arthropod paleontology

Cephalopods

Three new species of extinct Octopoda discovered in 2009. The species – Keuppia hyperbolaris, Keuppia levante, and Styletoctopus annae – lived about 95 million years ago, and bear a strong resemblance to modern octopuses, suggesting that the Octopoda order has remained relatively unchanged for tens of millions of years. The fossils included evidence of arms, muscles, rows of suckers, ink, and internal gills. The discovery was made by a team led by Dirk Fuchs of the Freie University, which is located at Berlin, Germany.^[2] The fossils were found at Hakel and Hadjoula, Lebanon.^[3] Various new ammonoid taxa were named, including Ivoites.

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Keuppia[4]	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Fuchs, Bracchi, & Weis	Upper Cenomanian		Lebanon		Keuppia levante
Styletoctopus[4]	gen et sp nov	Valid	Fuchs, Bracchi, & Weis	Upper Cenomanian		Lebanon
Ivoites[5]	gen nov	Valid	De Baets, Klug, & Korn	Lower Emsian		Germany

Cartilaginous fish

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Gansuselache[6]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Wang et al.	Late Permian	Fangshankou Formation	China	A member of Hybodontoidea. Genus includes new species G. tungshengi.
Papilionichthys[7]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Grogan Lund	Carboniferous (Serpukhovian)	Bear Gulch Limestone	United States	A member of Iniopterygidae. The type species is P. stahlae.
Rainerichthys[7]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Grogan Lund	Carboniferous (Serpukhovian)	Bear Gulch Limestone	United States	A member of Iniopterygidae. The type species is R. zangerli.

Bony fish

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Aphanius yerevanicus[8]	Valid	Vasilyan Reichenbacher Carnevale	Late Miocene		Armenia	A pupfish, a species of Aphanius.
Carpathoserranoides[9]	Valid	Prokofiev	Oligocene		Czech Republic  Poland	A member of Percoidei. The type species is C. brnoensis; genus also includes C. polonicus.
Caucasoserranoides[9]	Valid	Prokofiev	Oligocene		Russia	A member of Percoidei. The type species is C. morozkiensis.
Eophryne[10]	Valid	Carnevale Pietsch	Eocene (late Ypresian)	Monte Bolca locality	Italy	A frogfish. The type species is Eophryne barbutii.
Gogosardina[11]	Valid	Choo Long Trinajstic	Late Devonian	Gogo Formation	Australia	An early ray-finned fish. Genus includes new species G. coatesi.
Heddleichthys[12]	Valid	Snitting	Famennian (Late Devonian)	Dura Den Formation	Scotland
Hendrixella[13]	Valid	Bannikov Carnevale	Eocene (late Ypresian)	Monte Bolca locality	Italy	A member of Percoidei of uncertain phylogenetic placement. The type species is Hendrixella grandei.
Langlieria[14]	Valid	Clément Snitting Ahlberg	Famennian (Late Devonian)	Evieux Formation	Belgium
Oligoserranoides[9]	Valid	Prokofiev	Oligocene		Abkhazia  Azerbaijan  Czech Republic  France  Germany  Hungary  Poland  Romania  Russia  Ukraine	A member of Percoidei. The type species is "Smerdis" budensis Heckel (1856); genus also includes "Serranus" comparabilis Daniltshenko (1960).
Ridewoodichthys[15]	Valid	Taverne	Early Paleocene		Angola	An arowana; a new genus for "Brychaetus" caheni Taverne (1969).
Ungarnia[9]	Valid	Prokofiev	Oligocene		Romania	A member of Percoidei. The type species is "Serranus" transsylvanicus Bohm (1942).

• Shimada, K.; Everhart, M.J. (2009). "First record of Anomoeodus (Osteichthyes: Pycnodontiformes) from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 112 (1/2): 98–102. doi:10.1660/062.112.0212. S2CID 83951062.

Amphibians

Newly named amphibians

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Baphetes orientalis[16]	Valid	Milner Milner Walsh	Late Carboniferous		Czech Republic
Cratia[17]	Valid	Báez Moura Gómez	Lower Cretaceous	Crato Formation	Brazil	Possible stem neobatrachian
Eurycephalella[17]	Valid	Báez Moura Gómez	Lower Cretaceous	Crato Formation	Brazil	A hyloid
Nannaroter[18]	Valid	Anderson Scott Reisz	Early Permian		USA	The smallest known ostodolepid microsaur
Nesovtriton[19]	Valid	Skutschas	Turonian	Bissekty Formation	Uzbekistan	A cryptobranchoid salamander
Regalerpeton[20]	Valid	Zhang Wang Jones Evans	Early Cretaceous	Huajiying Formation	China	A cryptobranchoid salamander
Spinarerpeton[21]	Valid	Klembara	Early Permian	Boskovice Furrow	Czech Republic	A discosauriscid seymouriamorph

Basal reptiles

Newly named basal reptiles

Name	Status	Authors	Discovery year	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Australothyris[22]	Valid	Modesto Scott Reisz		Middle Permian	Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone	South Africa	A basal parareptile
Procolina[23]	Valid	Borsuk−Białynicka Lubka		early Late Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A procolophonine procolophonid

Turtles

Newly named turtles

Name	Status	Authors	Discovery year	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Angolachelys[24]	Valid	Mateus Jacobs et al.[CAL 1]		Turonian (Late Cretaceous)		Angola
Aurorachelys[25]	Valid	Vandermark Tarduno et al.[CAL 2]		Late Cretaceous	Strand Fiord Formation	Canada
Basilochelys[26]	Valid	Tong Claude et al.[CAL 3]		Late Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous	Phu Kradung Formation	Thailand
Cedrobaena[27]	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Paleocene	Fort Union Formation	USA	New genus for "Plesiobaena" putorius Gaffney, 1972
Chelonoidis alburyorum[28]	Valid	Franz Franz		Holocene		The Bahamas	A tortoise.
Chinlechelys[29]	Valid	Joyce et al.		Late Triassic (Norian)	Bull Canyon Formation	United States	A basal member of Testudinata. The type species is C. tenertesta. The genus Chinlechelys was considered to be a junior synonym of the genus Proganochelys by Joyce (2017), though the author maintained C. tenertesta as a distinct species within the latter genus.[30]
Derrisemys[31]	Junior synonym	Hutchison		Early Paleocene		USA	Junior synonym of Hutchemys.[32]
Eileanchelys[33]	Valid	Anquetin Barrett et al.[CAL 4]		Middle Jurassic	Kilmaluag Formation	Scotland
Hutchemys[34]	Valid	Joyce Revan Lyson Danilov		Paleocene	Fort Union Formation Tullock Formation	USA	A plastomenine softshell turtles
Kinkonychelys[35]	Valid	Gaffney Krause Zalmout		Late Cretaceous	Maevarano Formation	Madagascar
Palatobaena cohen[36]	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Maastrichtian	Hell Creek Formation	USA	A baenid
Peckemys[27]	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Late Cretaceous	Hell Creek Formation	USA	A baenid
Plastomenoides[31]	Junior synonym	Hutchison		Early Paleocene		USA	Junior synonym of Hutchemys.[32]

Archosauromorphs

Basal archosauromorphs

Newly named basal archosauromorphs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Czatkowiella[37]	Valid	Borsuk−Białynicka Evans	earliest Late Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A long−necked archosauromorph

Archosaurs

Main article: 2009 in archosaur paleontology

Lepidosauromorphs

Basal lepidosauromorphs

Newly named basal lepidosauromorphs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Pamelina[38]	Valid	Evans	Early Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A basal kuehneosaurid
Sophineta[39]	Valid	Evans Borsuk−Białynicka	earliest Late Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A basal lepidosauromorph

Plesiosaurs

• In 2009, in Svalbard, Norway a new pliosaur was found by Jorn Hurum. It currently is codenamed as "Predator X."
• O'Keefe, F. R.; Street, H. P. (2009). "Osteology of the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis, with comments on the taxonomic status of the Cimoliasauridae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (1): 48–57. doi:10.1671/039.029.0118. S2CID 31924376.

Newly named plesiosaurs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Gallardosaurus[40]	Valid	Gasparini	Late Jurassic (Oxfordian)	Jagua Formation	Cuba		Gallardosaurus
Nichollssaura[41]	Valid	Druckenmiller Russell	Early Cretaceous (Albian)	Clearwater Formation	Canada	Replacement name for Nichollsia Druckenmiller & Russell, 2008, preoccupied by an isopod genus Nichollsia Chopra & Tiwari, 1950	Nichollssaura.
Rarosaurus[42]	Disputed	Kaddumi	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)		Jordan	A member of Polycotylidae. The type species is R. singularis.

Squamates

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Carinodens minalmamar[43]	Sp. nov	Valid	Schulp, Bardet & Bouya	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)		Morocco	A mosasaur.
Titanoboa[44]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Head et al.	Paleocene	Cerrejón Formation	Colombia	In February, the fossils of 28 individual T. cerrejonensis (Titanoboas) were announced to have been found in the coal mines of Cerrejón, La Guajira, Colombia.[45]

Synapsids

Non-mammalian

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Protuberum[46]	Valid	Reichel Schultz Soares	Middle Triassic (Ladinian)	Santa Maria Formation	Brazil
Raranimus[47]	Valid	Liu Rubidge Li	Middle Permian (Roadian)	Xidagou Formation	China		Raranimus dasahankouensis
Yuanotherium[48]	Valid	Hu Meng Clark	Late Jurassic (Oxfordian)	Shishugou Formation	China

Mammals

Main article: 2009 in mammal paleontology

Plants

Angiosperms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Eucalyptolaurus[49]	gen et sp nov	Valid	Coiffard et al.	uppermost Albian-lowermost Cenomanian	Charente-Maritimes	France

Relevant research in other sciences

Evolutionary biology

• A study is published that proposes that females from certain taxa use ornaments as a criterion for mate choice because other dimorphic structures, like biological "weaponry" could be used to coerce or force them to mate.^[50]
• A study concludes that biotic factors have more pronounced local and short term evolutionary impacts than abiotic factors, which in turn have a more pronounced effect through time and on biodiversity as a whole.^[51]

Extinction

A study noting the effects of the KT mass extinction on Earth's modern biota is published.^[52]

Geology

• Zhang, H.; Wei, Z.-L.; Liu, X.-M.; Li, D. (2009). "Constraints on the age of the Tuchengzi Formation by LA-ICP-MS dating in northern Hebei-western Liaoning, China". Science China Earth Sciences. 52 (4): 461–470. Bibcode:2009ScChD..52..461Z. doi:10.1007/s11430-009-0052-9. S2CID 129751106.

Ichnology

• Bedatou, E.; Melchor, R.N.; Genise, J.F. (2009). "Complex palaeosol ichnofabrics from Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous volcaniclastic successions of central Patagonia, Argentina". Sedimentary Geology. 218 (1–4): 74–102. Bibcode:2009SedG..218...74B. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2009.04.005.

Paleobiogeography

• Pereda-Suberbiola X (2009). "Biogeographical affinities of Late Cretaceous continental tetrapods of Europe: a review". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 180 (1): 57–71. doi:10.2113/gssgfbull.180.1.57.

Paleoecology

• Nicolas M., Rubidge B.S. (2009). "Changes in Permo-Triassic terrestrial tetrapod ecological representation in the Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup) of South Africa". Lethaia. 43: 45–59. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2009.00171.x.