2009 in paleontology

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File:2009 palaeo NT.jpg

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

Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, "ancient"; ontos, "being"; and logos, "knowledge") 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 mankind has 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.

Arthropods

Main article: 2009 in paleoathropodology

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. The fossils were found at Hakel and Hadjoula, Lebanon. Various new ammonoid taxa were named, including Ivoites.

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

Bony fish

Newly named Tetrapodomoprhs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Aphanius yerevanicus	Valid	Vasilyan Reichenbacher Carnevale	Late Miocene		Armenia	A pupfish, a species of Aphanius.
Eophryne	Valid	Carnevale Pietsch	Eocene (late Ypresian)	Monte Bolca locality	Italy	A frogfish. The type species is Eophryne barbutii.
Heddleichthys	Valid	Snitting	Famennian (Late Devonian)	Dura Den Formation	Scotland
Hendrixella	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	Valid	Clément Snitting Ahlberg	Famennian (Late Devonian)	Evieux Formation	Belgium

A new species of late Maastrichtian bony fish (Ichthyodectiformes: Saurocephalus) from Jordan, Saurocephalus longicorpus described by Kaddumi (2009)

A new species of late Maastrichtian bony fish (Aulopiformes: Enchodontidae) from Jordan, Enchodus harranaensis described by Kaddumi (2009)

Reference: Kaddumi, H. F. 2009. Fossils of the Harrana Fauna and the Adjacent Areas. Publications of the Etrnal Rive Museum of Natural History, Amman. 324 pp.

Amphibians

Newly named amphibians

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Cratia	Valid	Báez Moura Gómez	Lower Cretaceous	Crato Formation	Brazil	Possible stem neobatrachian
Eurycephalella	Valid	Báez Moura Gómez	Lower Cretaceous	Crato Formation	Brazil	A hyloid
Nannaroter	Valid	Anderson Scott Reisz	Early Permian		USA	The smallest known ostodolepid microsaur
Nesovtriton	Valid	Skutschas	Turonian	Bissekty Formation	Uzbekistan	A cryptobranchoid salamander
Regalerpeton	Valid	Zhang Wang Jones Evans	Early Cretaceous	Huajiying Formation	China	A cryptobranchoid salamander
Spinarerpeton	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	Valid	Modesto Scott Reisz		Middle Permian	Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone	South Africa	A basal parareptile
Procolina	Valid	Borsuk−Białynicka Lubka		early Late Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A procolophonine procolophonid

Turtles

Newly named basal turtles

Name	Status	Authors	Discovery year	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Angolachelys	Valid	Mateus Jacobs et al.		Turonian (Late Cretaceous)		Angola
Aurorachelys	Valid	Vandermark Tarduno et al.		Late Cretaceous	Strand Fiord Formation	Canada
Basilochelys	Valid	Tong Claude et al.		Late Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous	Phu Kradung Formation	Thailand
Cedrobaena	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Paleocene	Fort Union Formation	USA	New genus for "Plesiobaena" putorius Gaffney, 1972
Derrisemys	Junior synonym	Hutchison		Early Paleocene		USA	Junior synonym of Hutchemys.
Eileanchelys	Valid	Anquetin Barrett et al.		Middle Jurassic	Kilmaluag Formation	Scotland
Hutchemys	Valid	Joyce Revan Lyson Danilov		Paleocene	Fort Union Formation Tullock Formation	USA	A plastomenine softshell turtles
Kinkonychelys	Valid	Gaffney Krause Zalmout		Late Cretaceous	Maevarano Formation	Madagascar
Palatobaena cohen	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Maastrichtian	Hell Creek Formation	USA	A baenid
Peckemys	Valid	Lyson Joyce		Late Cretaceous	Hell Creek Formation	USA	A baenid
Plastomenoides	Junior synonym	Hutchison		Early Paleocene		USA	Junior synonym of Hutchemys.

Archosauromorphs

Basal archosauromorphs

Newly named basal archosauromorphs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Czatkowiella	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	Valid	Evans	Early Olenekian	Czatkowice 1	Poland	A basal kuehneosaurid
Sophineta	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."

Newly named plesiosaurs
Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Gallardosaurus	Valid	Gasparini	Late Jurassic (Oxfordian)	Jagua Formation	Cuba
Nichollssaura	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.

Squamates

Newly named squamates
Name	Status	Authors		Notes	Images
Titanoboa	Valid	Head Bloch Hastings Bourque	Cadena Herrera Polly Jaramillo	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.

Synapsids

Non-mammalian

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

Mammals

Main article: 2009 in paleomammalogy

Plants

Angiosperms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Eucalyptolaurus	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.
• 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.

Extinction

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

Ichnology

• Bedatou, E., Melchor, R.N., and Genise, J.F. 2009. Complex palaeosol ichnofabrics from Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous volcaniclastic successions of central Patagonia, Argentina. Sedimentary Geology. 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., and Rubidge, B.S. 2009. Changes in Permo-Triassic terrestrial tetrapod ecological representation in the Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup) of South Africa. Lethaia. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2009.00171.x.

Footnotes

Complete author list

As science becomes more collaborative, papers with large numbers of authors are becoming more common. To prevent the deformation of the tables, these footnotes list the contributors to papers that erect new genera and have many authors.