1957 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 1957.

Scientific advances

Invertebrate paleozoology

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Ameghinoia[2]	Gen et sp nov	jr synonym	Viana & Haedo Rossi, 1957	Middle Eocene	Ventana Formation	Argentina	Extinct Myrmeciin ant genus, jr synonym of type species Archimyrmex, sole species A. piatnitzkii

Vertebrate paleozoology

Data coutersy of George Olshevky's dinosaur genera list.^[3]

Name	Status	Authors		Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Lexovisaurus[4]	Nomen dubium	Robert Hoffstetter		Middle Jurassic (Callovian)	Oxford Clay Formation	United Kingdom	A stegosaurid.
Lusitanosaurus[5]	Nomen dubium	Albert-Félix de Lapparent	Zbyszewski	Early Jurassic	Unnamed unit	Portugal	A basal thyreophoran.

Name	Status	Authors		Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Colbertosaurus[6]	Valid	Minoprio		Middle Triassic	Potrereillos Formation	Argentina	A traversodontid; a replacement name for Colbertia Minoprio (1954)
Scalenodontoides[7]	Valid	Crompton and Ellenberger		Late Triassic (late Norian-Rhaetian)	Lower Elliot Formation	Lesotho  South Africa	A traversodontid.

People

Awards and recognition

Popular culture

Literature

• Plutonia: An Adventure Through Prehistory by Russian geologist Vladimir Obruchev was published. The novel depicts a team of scientists, who find an arctic entry to a subterranean realm populated by dinosaurs. Other forms of prehistoric life and giant tortoises also made an appearance in Obruchev's underworld. Paleontologist William A. S. Sarjeant describes this novel's ending as "blea[k]" because after returning to the surface all of the scientists become involved in World War I and "all their trophies and even their lives are lost." The novel's portrayal of sauropods as being able to move about effectively on land was notable because at the time most scientists believed that sauropods relied on buoyancy in water to help support their body weight.^[8]

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. Dlussky, G.M. (2012). "New Fossil Ants of the Subfamily Myrmeciinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Germany". Paleontological Journal. 46 (3): 288–292. doi:10.1134/s0031030111050054.
3. Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". Retrieved 2008-08-07.
4. Hoffstetter, R. 1957. Quelques observations sur le Stegosaurines. Bulletin du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (2nd series) 29: pp. 537- 547.
5. Lapparent, A.F. de and G. Zbyszewski. 1957. Les dinosauriens du Portugal. Mémoires du Service géologique du Portugal 2: pp. 1-63.
6. Mionoprio, J. L., 1957, Nota aclaratoria sobre Colberta muralis: Ameghiniana, v. 1, p. 144.
7. A. W. Crompton and F. Ellenberger. 1957. On a new cynodont from the Molteno Beds and the origin of the tritylodontids. Annals of the South African Museum 44:1-14
8. Sarjeant, W. A. S., 2001, Dinosaurs in fiction: In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, p. 504-529.