1997 in paleontology

Plants

Cycadophytes

Cycadophyte research

• Hopkins and Johnson briefly report the first occurrence of cycad leaves from the Eocene Okanagan Highlands Klondike Mountain Formation which will later be identified to the family Zamiaceae.

Angiosperms

Fungi

Paleomycological research

• LePage et al briefly describe the first instance of ectomycorrhizae in the fossil record, based on specimens from the Eocene Okanagan Highlands Princeton chert site. The fungi are associated with Pinus roots and were considered similar to the modern fungal genera Rhizopogon and Suillus

Arthropoda

Insects

Plesiosaurs

Newly Named Plesiosaurs

Archosauromorphs

Pseudosuchians

General pseudosuchian research

• A review of Australasian fossil crocodilians is published by Willis (1997).

Pterosaurs

Newly Named Pterosaurs

Non-avian dinosauromorphs

• Paleontologist Karen Chin received a coprolite that was excavated during 1995 from strata dating back to the Maastrichtian in Saskatchewan, Canada. The specimen was about 17 inches (44 cm) long and contained fragments of bone. Due to its size, contents and age, the coprolite was believed to have been the remains of Tyrannosaurus rex feces. This discovery was announced in a 1998 paper published in the journal Nature.
• A Saharan expedition under the leadership of Paul Sereno yielded fruit when a team member stumbled on the bones and skull of Nigersaurus taqueti. During this and a subsequent 1999 expedition about 80% of the animal's skeleton were discovered. Later in the year of the second expedition, a formal description of the animal was published.
• French paleontologist Philippe Taquet reported the finding of fossilized theropod embryos preserved in Portuguese dinosaur eggs. These eggs were from the Jurassic period dating to about 140 million years ago, nearly twice as old as any previously recovered dinosaur embryos, which had only been known from about 70 million years ago in Late Cretaceous strata.
• Psittacosaurus gastroliths documented.
• Panoplosaurus gastroliths documented.

Newly named non-avian dinosauromorphs

Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.

Birds

Newly named birds

Synapsids

Eutherians

Humans

• Genetecist Michael Hammer reported findings that demonstrate that after the initial "out of Africa" radiation of modern humans at about 100,000 years ago, some humans eventually returned to Africa between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Exopaleontology

• Richard B. Hoover of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center photographs what he believes to be microfossils in the martian Murchison meteorite.

References

• Carpenter, K. (1997) Ankylosaurs. In J.O. farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman (eds.), The complete dinosaur, pp. 307–316. Bloomington Indiana University Press.
• Xu, X. (1997) A new psittacosaur (Psittacosaurus mazongshanensis sp. nov.) from Mazongshan area, Gansu province, China. In. Z.-M. Dong (ed.), Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition, pp. 48–67. Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Academia Sinica. Beijing: China Ocean Press.
• 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.

References

1. (1997). "First Record of cycad leaves from the Eocene Republic flora". Washington Geology.
2. (2005). "The McAbee flora of British Columbia and its relations to the Early-Middle Eocene Okanagan Highlands flora of the Pacific Northwest". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
3. (1997). "The fossil record of ''Eucommia'' (Eucommiaceae) in North America". American Journal of Botany.
4. (1997). "Fossil mushrooms from Miocene and Cretaceous ambers and the evolution of Homobasidiomycetes". American Journal of Botany.
5. (1997). "Fossil ectomycorrhizae from the middle Eocene". American Journal of Botany.
6. (July 2018). ["New and rediscovered primitive ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey, and their phylogenetic relationships."](http://ants.csiro.au/Ant_Wiki/images/6/60/Grimaldi_Agosti_Carpenter_1997.pdf }}{{Dead link). American Museum Novitates.
7. (1996). "New fossil Odonata (Insecta) from the upper Miocene of France and Spain (Anisoptera and Zygoptera)". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen.
8. (2016). "A new gigantic lacewing species (Insecta: Neuroptera) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil confirms the occurrence of Kalligrammatidae in the Americas". Cretaceous Research.
9. (1997). "New crocodilians from the late Oligocene White Hunter Site, Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum.
10. (1997). "A review of the Plio-Pleistocene crocodilian genus Pallimnarchus". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
11. (1997). "Review of fossil crocodilians from Australasia.". Australian Zoologist.
12. Xu (1997). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.
13. Carpenter (1997). Sanders, Manley, and Carpenter (2001), "Table 12.1" page 167.
14. Olshevsky, George. "Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Genera List".
15. Dong, Z.M. and Y. Azuma. 1997. On a primitive neoceratopsian from the Early Cretaceous. In: Sino-Japanese Slik Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press, Beijing: pp. 68-89.
16. Carpenter, K. 1997. A giant coelophysoid (Ceratosauria) theropod from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, USA. Neües Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Abhandlungen, 205 (2): pp. 189-208.
17. Dong, Z.-M. 1997. A Gigantic Sauropod (Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum gen. et. sp. nov.) from the Turpan Basin, China. In: Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.-M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press: pp. 102-110.
18. Ji, Q. and S. Ji. 1997. A Chinese archaeopterygian, Protarchaeopteryx gen. nov. Geological Science and Technology (Di Zhi Ke Ji) 238 (1997): pp. 38-41.
19. Dong, Z.-M. 1997. A small ornithopod from Mazongshan area, Gansu Province, China. In: Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition (Z.-M. Dong, ed.). China Ocean Press, Beijing: pp. 24–26.
20. (1997). "New evidence concerning avian origins from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia". Nature.
21. D. Tab Rasmussen. (1997). "Birds". In: Kay, R.F.; Madden, R.H.; Cifelli, R.L. & Flynn, J.J., Eds. Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics: The Miocene Fauna of la Venta, Colombia Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C..
22. (1997). "''Athene angelis'' n. sp. (Aves, Strigiformes) Nouvelle Espèce Endémique Inlaire Éreinte du Pléistocène Moyen et Supérieur de Corse (France)". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris.
23. Hou Lianhai. (1997). "Mesozoic Birds of China". Natou, Taiwan: Taiwan Feng Huang Gu Bird Garden, English Translation.
24. (2015). "Taxonomical reappraisal of Cathayornithidae (Aves: Enantiornithes)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
25. Zlatozar N. Boev. (1997). "''Chauvireria balcanica'' Gen. N., Sp. N. (Perdicinae - Galliformes) from the Middle Villafranchian of Western Bulgaria". Geologica Balcanica.
26. (1997). "''Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis'' Gen. et Sp. Nov., an Early Cuckoo (Aves: Cuculidae) from the Late Paleocene of Brazil". Alcheringa.
27. Jirí Mlíkovský. (1997). "A New Tropicbird (Aves: Phaethontidae) from the Late Miocene of Austria". Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. Ser. A.
28. Hou Lianhai. (January 2016). "A Carinate Bird from the Upper Jurassic of Western Liaoning, China". Chinese Science Bulletin.
29. (1997). "Early Cretaceous Birds from Saskatchewan, Canada, the Oldest Avifauna Known from North-America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
30. Trevor H. Worthy. (1997). "A Mid-Pleistocene Rail from New Zealand". Alcheringa.
31. Amadeo M. Rea. (1997). "The Indeterminate Parrot of Nuevo León". In: A. R. Phillips & R. W. Dickerman (Comp.): The Era of Allan R. Phillips; A Festschrift Albuquerque, New Mexico, Horizon Communications, Robert Dickerman.
32. Karlheinz Fischer. (1997). "Neue Vogelfunde aus dem Mittleren Oligozän des Weißelsterbeckens bei Leipzig (Sachsen)". Mauritiana.
33. Steven M. Goodman. (1997). "Description of a New Species of Subfossil Lapwing (Aves: Charadriiformes, Charadriidae, Vanellus) from Madagascar". Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Section C.
34. Aleksandr A. Karkhu. (1997). "A New Species of Urmiornis (Gruiformes: Ergilornithidae) from the Early Miocene of Western Kazakhstan". Paleontological Journal.
35. Johnson, Steven C. & Madden, Richard H. 1997. Uruguaytheriinae Astrapotheres of Tropical South America. Chapter 22 in ''Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene Fauna of La Venta, Colombia''. Edited by Richard F. Kay, Richard H. Madden, Richard L. Cifelli, and John J. Flynn. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington and London.