1964 in paleontology

List of years in paleontology (table)
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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 1964.

Arthropods

Newly named insects

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Poneropsis hypolitha[2]	Comb nov	Syn	(Cockerell)	Late Eocene	Bembridge Marls	UK	A Dolichoderin ant jr synonym of Emplastus hypolithus	Emplastus hypolithus

Mollusca

Newly named bivalves

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Location	Notes	Images
Similodonta.[3]	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Soot-Reyn	Middle Ordovician to Middle Silurian	Canada ( Quebec)  China  Estonia  Norway  Spain  Sweden  UK  USA ( Illinois,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Minnesota,  Ohio and  Wisconsin)	New genus and species with five other species moved from other genera

Archosauromorphs

Newly named dinosaurs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.^[4]

Name	Status	Authors		Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Chilantaisaurus[5]	Valid taxon	Hu S.		Late Cretaceous (Turonian)	Ulansuhai Formation	China	A member of Neovenatoridae.	Chilantaisaurus
Eustreptospondylus[6]	Valid taxon	Alick Walker		Middle Jurassic (Callovian)	Oxford Clay	UK	A megalosaurid.	Eustreptospondylus
Fabrosaurus[7]	Nomen dubium.	Leonard Ginsburg		Early Jurassic (Sinemurian-Pliensbachian)	Upper Elliot Formation	Lesotho	A dubious ornithischian.
Metriacanthosaurus[6]	Valid taxon	Alick Walker		Late Jurassic (Oxfordian)	Oxford Clay	UK	A member of Metriacanthosauridae.	Metriacanthosaurus

Newly named birds

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Agriocharis progenes [8]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Brodkorb	Blancan		USA	A Meleagridae.
Anabernicula oregonensis [9]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Howard	Middle Pleistocene	Fossil Lake	USA ( Oregon)	An Anatidae.
Asio priscus [10]	Sp. nov.	Valid	Howard	Late Pleistocene	Santa Rosa Island Formation	USA ( California)	A Strigidae.
Nettion greeni [11]	Sp. nov.	jr synonym	Brodkorb	Early Pliocene	Ash Hollow Formation	USA ( Nebraska)	An Anatidae, transferred to Anas greeni.
Tympanonesiotes [12]	Gen et Sp. nov.	jr synonym?	Hopson	Early Miocene	Hawthorne Formation	USA ( Florida and  Georgia (U.S. state)	A Pseudodontornithidae, type species T. wetmorei, transferred tentatively to Pelagornis wetmorei

Pterosaurs

New taxa

Name Status Authors Location Notes Images Dsungaripterus Valid Young  China  Mongolia  Korea A Crested Shellfish-eating Pterosaur. Dsungaripterus Germanodactylus Valid Yang  Germany  UK The German Finger. Germanodactylus

Plesiosaurs

New taxa

Name Status Authors Notes Strongylokrotaphus junior synonym Novozhilov junior synonym of Pliosaurus

Other animals

Other newly named animals

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Beorn[13]	Gen et Sp. nov.	Valid	Cooper	Late Cretaceous (Campanian)		Canada	A tardigrade; originally placed in its own family (Beornidae), it was later reclassified as a member of the Hypsibiidae.[14]	Beorn

References

1. Gini-Newman, Garfield; Graham, Elizabeth (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN 9780070887398. OCLC 46769716.
2. Antropov AV, Belokobylskij SA, Compton SG, Dlussky GM, Khalaim AI, KolyadaVA, Kozlov MA, PerfilievaKS, Rasnitsyn AP (2014). "The wasps, bees and ants (Insecta: Vespida=Hymenoptera) from the Insect Limestone (Late Eocene) of the Isle of Wight, UK" (PDF). Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 104 (3–4): 335–446. doi:10.1017/S1755691014000103. S2CID 85699800.
3. Cope, J.C.W. (1999). "Middle Ordovician bivalves from Mid-Wales and the Welsh Borderland". Palaeontology. 42 (3): 467–499. Bibcode:1999Palgy..42..467C. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00081.
4. Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
5. Hu S. 1964. Carnosaurian remains from Alashan, Inner Mongolia. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 8: pp. 42-63.
6. Walker, A.D. 1964. Triassic Reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus and the origin of Carnosaurs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, series B 248: pp. 53- 135.
7. Ginsburg, L. 1964. Decouverte d'un Scelidosaurian (Dinosaure ornithischien) dans le Trias superieur du Basutoland. Compte rendu hebdomadaire des seances de l’Academie des Sciences Paris, tomo 258: pp. 2366-2368.
8. Brodkorb, P (1964). "Notes of Fossil Turkeys" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences. 27 (3): 223–229. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
9. Howard, H (1964). "A New Species of "Pygmee Goose," Anabernicula, from the Oregon Pleistocene, with a Discussion of the genus" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (2200): 1–14.
10. Howard, H (1964). "A fossil owl from Santa Rosa Island" (PDF). Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. 163: 27–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
11. Brodkorb, P (1964). "A Pliocene Teal from South Dakota". Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences. 27 (1): 55–58.
12. Hopson, JA (1964). "Pseudodontornis and Other Large Marine Birds from the Miocene of South Carolina" (PDF). Postilla, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. 83: 1–19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
13. Cooper, Kenneth W. (1964-01-01). "The first fossil tardigrade: Beorn leggi Cooper, from Cretaceous amber". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 71 (2): 41–48. doi:10.1155/1964/48418. ISSN 0033-2615.
14. Mapalo, Marc A.; Wolfe, Joanna M.; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (2024-08-06). "Cretaceous amber inclusions illuminate the evolutionary origin of tardigrades". Communications Biology. 7 (1). doi:10.1038/s42003-024-06643-2. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 11303527.