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 1917.

List of years in paleontology (table)
In science
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
+...

Arthropods

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Insects

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Name Novelty Status Authors Age Type locality Location Notes Images

Tortrix? destructus[2]

sp. nov

jr synonym

Cockerell

Priabonian

Florissant Formation

  USA
  Colorado

A moth, moved to Paleolepidopterites destructus (2018)[3]

 
Paleolepidopterites destructus

Vertebrates

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Newly named non-mammalian synapsids

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Name Novelty Status Authors Age Type locality Location Notes Images

Myosaurus

Valid

Haughton

250 Millions years ago

  Antarctica
  South Africa

 
Myosaurus

Platycraniellus

Valid

Van Hoepen

250 Millions years ago

  South Africa

Prolystrosaurus

Valid

Haughton

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

Newly named avialaens

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Name Novelty Status Authors Age Type locality Location Notes Images

"Archaeornis"[5]

Gen et comb nov

Junior synonym

Petronievics

Tithonian

Solnhofen limestone

  Germany

Moved from Archaeopteryx siemensii (1897)
refuted and retained in Archaeopteryx.

 
Archaeopteryx siemensii

Newly named dinosaurs

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Name Novelty Status Authors Age Type locality Location Notes Images

"Cheneosaurus"[6]

gen et sp nov

Junior synonym.

Lambe

Late Campanian

Horseshoe Canyon Formation

  Canada
  Alberta

Junior synonym of Hypacrosaurus.

Edmontosaurus[7]

gen et sp et comb nov

Valid

Lambe

late Campanian

Horseshoe Canyon Formation

  Canada
  Alberta

A saurolophine hadrosaurid.
Type species E. regalis
Also includes "Claosaurus" annectens (1882)

 
Edmontosaurus regalis

Struthiomimus[8]

Sub gen et comb nov

Valid

Osborn

Campanian

Oldman Formation

  Canada
  Alberta

An Ornithomimid
A new subgenus for "Ornithomimus" altus (1901),
elevated to Struthiomimus altus (1972)

 
Struthiomimus altus

Literature

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  • Hunting Dinosaurs in the Badlands of the Red Deer River Valley, Alberta by C. H. Sternberg was published. Although the work was mostly non-fiction, it concluded with a series of fictional chapters wherein Sternberg dreamt of traveling back in time to the various ages of prehistory.[9]

References

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  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. ^ Cockerell, T. D. A. (1917). "Some American fossil insects". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 51 (2146): 89–106. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.51-2146.89.
  3. ^ Maria Heikkilä; John W. Brown; Joaquin Baixeras; Wolfram Mey; Mikhail V. Kozlov (2018). "Re-examining the rare and the lost: a review of fossil Tortricidae (Lepidoptera)". Zootaxa. 4394 (1): 41–60. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4394.1.2. PMID 29690381.
  4. ^ Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  5. ^ Petronievics, B. and A.S. Woodward. 1917. On the pectoral and pelvic arches of the Britt.Mus. specimen of Archaeopteryx. Proc. Zool. Soc. London: pp. 1 - 16.
  6. ^ Lambe, L.M. 1917. On Cheneosaurus tolmanensis, a new genus and species of trachodont dinosaur from the Edmonton Cretaceous of Alberta. Ottawa Nat. 30: pp. 117- 123.
  7. ^ Lambe, L.M. 1917. A new genus and species of crestless hadrosaur from the Edmonton Formation of Alberta. Ottawa Nat. 31: pp. 65-73.
  8. ^ Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1917). "Skeletal adaptations of Ornitholestes, Struthiomimus, Tyrannosaurus" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 35: 733–771.
  9. ^ Sarjeant, W. A. S., 2001, Dinosaurs in fiction: In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, pp. 504-529.