1877 in paleontology

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Paleontology or palaeontology (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.^[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 1877.

Arthropods

Newly named insects

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Aphaenogaster longaeva[2]	Sp nov	nomen dubium	Scudder	Oligocene?	Fraser Formation?	Canada	Myrmicin ant species, placement uncertain

Fish

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Heliobatis[3]	gen et sp nov.	Valid	Marsh	Wasatchian	Green River Formation	USA	One of two stingrays from the Green River Formation		Heliobatis radians

Non-dinosaurian reptiles

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Dasygnathus		Junior synonym	Huxley	Late Triassic	Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation	Scotland	A misidentified ornithosuchid archosaur whose name was preoccupied by MacLeay, 1819. It was later renamed Dasygnathoides. Synonym of Ornithosuchus
Palaeoctonus		Nomen dubium	Cope	Late Triassic		US	Dubious genus of misidentified phytosaur.
Suchoprion		Nomen dubium	Cope			US	Dubious genus of misidentified phytosaur.

Dinosaurs

Laelaps trihedrodon, Cope criticizes Dryptosaurus

O. W. Lucas collected the first remains of what would later in the year be named Laelaps trihedrodon from Quarry I of the Saurian Hill at Garden Park, Colorado.^[4] Edward Drinker Cope would describe the material later in the year in a short paper titled "On a carnivorous dinosaurian from the Dakota beds of Colorado."^[5] The "Dakota beds" he references are actually Morrison Formation strata.^[4] Cope claims to have a skeleton of unspecified completeness on which to establish the new species, but only describes a partial dentary which has 5 successional teeth, 2 functional teeth, and one tooth missing from its socket.^[5] All of the preceding material has since been lost to science with the exception of 5 broken, partial tooth crowns.^[6] From the now missing dentary, Cope infers that the creature is a carnivore and compares its dentition to that belonging to other members of his infamous "Laelaps" genus, L. aquilunguis and L. incrassatus.^[5] Cope concludes the paper with a pointed criticism of his rival O. C. Marsh's attempt to rename the Laelaps genus Dryptosaurus because the generic name Laelaps has been used in entomology.^[7] Cope claims that since the mite genus Laelaps was a synonym that the name was not truly preoccupied and Marsh's erection of Dryptosaurus has therefore created a new, redundant synonym of Laelaps the dinosaur.^[7] However, subsequent researchers have supported Marsh's new name.

Apatosaurus

• Apatosaurus specimen found with preserved gastroliths.^[8]

New genera

Name Status Authors Age Unit Location Notes Allosaurus Valid Othniel Charles Marsh  US An allosaurid theropod. Best known Late Jurassic large bodied theropod from North America. Amphicoelias Nomen dubium Edward Drinker Cope  US A diplodocoid Apatodon Nomen dubium Othniel Charles Marsh  US Possible subjective synonym of Allosaurus. Apatosaurus Valid Othniel Charles Marsh  US An apatosaurine diplodocid Atlantosaurus Nomen dubium Othniel Charles Marsh Possible subjective synonym of Apatosaurus. Camarasaurus Valid Edward Drinker Cope  US A camarasaurid. Caulodon Jr. synonym Edward Drinker Cope  US Junior subjective synonym of Camarasaurus. Dryptosaurus Valid Othniel Charles Marsh Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) New Egypt Formation  US A tyrannosauroid. Dystrophaeus Valid Edward Drinker Cope Late Jurassic Summerville Formation  US A eusauropod of unknown affinities Nanosaurus Valid Othniel Charles Marsh Late Jurassic Morrison Formation  US An ornithischian Stegosaurus Valid Othniel Charles Marsh Late Jurassic Morrison Formation  US A stegosaur Tichosteus Nomen dubium Edward Drinker Cope  US Affinities unknown Titanosaurus Nomen dubium Richard Lydekker Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Lameta Formation  India A titanosaur Titanosaurus Preoccupied. Othniel Charles Marsh Preoccupied by a genus erected by Richard Lydekker this same year. Later renamed Atlantosaurus.		Allosaurus. Stegosaurus.

Synapsids

Non-mammalian

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Archaeobelus		Valid

See also

• • 1877 in science

Footnotes

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. Carpenter, F. M. (1930). "The fossil ants of North America." (PDF). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 70: 1–66.
3. Grande, Lance (1984), "Paleontology of the Green River Formation, with a review of the fish fauna", Bulletin of the Wyoming State Geological Survey, Laramie, WY, 63 2nd ed.
4. "Introduction," Chure (2001) page 11.
5. Cope (1887) pages 805-806.
6. "Description of 5780," Chure (2001) page 11.
7. Cope (1887) page 806.
8. Cannon (1907). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.

References

• Cannon, G.L. (1907). Sauropodan gastroliths. Science 24, 116.
• Chure, Daniel J. (2001). "On the type and referred material of Laelaps trihedrodon Cope 1877 (Dinosauria: Theropoda)". In Tanke, Darren; and Carpenter, Kenneth (eds.). Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 10–18. ISBN 0-253-33907-3.
• Cope, E.D. (1877). On a carnivorous dinosaurian from the Dakota beds of Colorado. Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. Territories 3: 805-806.
• Sanders F, Manley K, Carpenter K. Gastroliths from the Lower Cretaceous sauropod Cedarosaurus weiskopfae. In: Tanke D.H, Carpenter K, editors. Mesozoic vertebrate life: new research inspired by the paleontology of Philip J. Currie. Indiana University Press; Bloomington, IN: 2001. pp. 166–180.