2010 in paleontology

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Important taxa described (but not necessarily validly named) in 2010

Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (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. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because mankind has 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 2010.

Molluscs

Main article: List of gastropods described in 2010 § Fossil gastropods

Newly named bivalves

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Emiliodonta	Gen nov	valid	Sánchez	Caradoc	Don Braulio Formation	Argentina	Replacement name for Emiliania Sánchez, 1999 preoccupied by Emiliania Hay & Mohler, 1967

Arthropods

Main article: 2010 in arthropod paleontology

Fishes

Main article: 2010 in paleoichthyology

Amphibians

Newly named amphibians

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Deltaherpeton	Valid	Bolt Lombard	Late Viséan		USA	A colosteid.
Fedexia	Valid	Berman Henrici et al.	Gzhelian	Casselman Formation	USA	A trematopid genus currently among the oldest known vertebrates with a primarily terrestrial lifestyle.
Hungarobatrachus	Valid	Szentesi Venczel	Santonian	Csehbánya Formation	Hungary	Advanced frog.
Madygenerpeton	Valid	Schoch Voigt Buchwitz	Middle/Upper Triassic	Madygen Formation	Kyrgyzstan	A chroniosuchid reptiliomorph.
Pelobates fahlbuschi	Valid	Böhme	Miocene		Germany	An European spadefoot toad.

Basal reptiles

Newly named basal reptiles

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Microleter	Valid	Tsuji Muller Reisz	Lower Permian		USA	A basal parareptile. The species is M. mckinzieorum.
Phonodus	Valid	Modesto Scott et al.	Induan (early Triassic)	Katberg Formation	South Africa	The earliest known leptopleuronine procolophonid.
Reiszorhinus	Valid	Sumida Dodick et al.	Lower Permian	Waggoner Ranch Formation	USA	A basal captorhinid. The species is Reiszorhinus olsoni.

Ichthyopterygians

Newly named ichthyopterygians

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Arthropterygius	Valid	Maxwell		Queen Elizabeth Islands	Canada	A new genus for "Ophthalmosaurus" chirsorum (Russell, 1993).
Athabascasaurus	Valid	Druckenmiller Maxwell	Lower Albian	Clearwater Formation	Canada	The most complete and stratigraphically oldest known ichthyosaur from the Cretaceous of North America.
Barracudasauroides	Valid	Maisch	Middle Triassic	Guanling Formation	China	A new genus for "Mixosaurus" panxianensis (Jiang, Schmitz, Hao & Sun, 2006).
Mixosaurus xindianensis	Valid	Chen Cheng	Middle Triassic	Guanling Formation	China
Omphalosaurus merriami	Valid	Maisch	Early Triassic	Sticky Keep Formation	Norway	A species of a possible ichthyopterygian genus Omphalosaurus.

Lepidosauromorphs

Newly named plesiosaurs

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Alexeyisaurus	Valid	Sennikov Arkhangelsky	Norian	Wilczek Formation	Russia	A new elasmosaurid
Meyerasaurus	Valid	Smith Vincent	Lower Toarcian	Posidonia Shale	Germany	A pliosaur, a new genus for "Plesiosaurus" victor (Fraas, 1910).	File:Fossil-Plesiosaurier-Skelett.jpg Meyerasaurus victor

Newly named basal lepidosaurs

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Cargninia	Valid	Bonaparte Schultz et al.	Carnian - Norian	Caturrita Formation	Brazil	A basal lepidosaur.

Newly named lizards

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Adriosaurus skrbinensis	Valid	Caldwell Palci	Late Cenomanian	Skrbina	Slovenia
Bavaricordylus molassicus	Valid	Böhme	Miocene (late Karpatian)		Germany	A cordylid, a species of Bavaricordylus.
Headonhillia	Valid	Klembara Green	Late Eocene, Ludian (Priabonian)	Bembridge Limestone Formation	England	An anguine lizard. The species is H. parva.
Heloderma welcommei	Valid	Herman Van Den Eeckhaut	Eocene		Belgium	An anguimorph lizard. Herman and Van Den Eeckhaut (2010) consider it to be a species of Heloderma (though the authors define the genus Heloderma more broadly than most herpetologists, and explicitly synonymize the glyptosaurine genus Placosaurus with it).
Kleskunsaurus	Valid	Nydam Caldwell Fanti	Upper Campanian	Wapiti Formation	Canada	A scincomorph lizard. The species is K. grandeprairiensis.
Liushusaurus	Valid	Evans Wang	Lower Cretaceous	Yixian Formation	China	A scincogekkonomorph lizard. The species is L. acanthocaudata.
Pedrerasaurus	Valid	Bolet Evans	Early Cretaceous (late Berriasian-early Valanginan)	Montsec's Formation	Spain	A scincogekkonomorph lizard. The species is P. latifrontalis.
Tropidophorus bavaricus	Valid	Böhme	Miocene (late Karpatian)		Germany	A lygosomine skink, a species of Tropidophorus.
Varanus debiei	Valid	Herman Van Den Eeckhaut	Eocene		Belgium	A monitor lizard.

Newly named snakes

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Colombophis spinosus	Valid	Hsiou, Albino & Ferigolo	Late Miocene	Solimões Formation	Brazil	An alethinophidian snake, a species of Colombophis.
Kelyophis	Valid	Laduke Krause Scanlon Kley	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)	Maevarano Formation	Madagascar	A nigerophiid snake
Menarana	Valid	Laduke Krause Scanlon Kley	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)	Maevarano Formation	Madagascar	A madtsoiid snake
Micronatrix	Valid	Parmley & Hunter	Late Miocene (Clarendonian)		United States	A natricine colubrid snake. The type species is Micronatrix juliescottae.
Sanajeh	Valid	Wilson Mohabey et al.	Maastrichtian	Lameta Formation	India	A madtsoiid snake which preyed on hatchling sauropods.	File:Sanajeh attacking sauropod.png Model of Sanajeh in a titanosaur nest

Turtles

Newly named turtles

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Cerrejonemys	Valid	Cadena Bloch Jaramillo	Paleocene	Cerrejón Formation	Colombia
Chupacabrachelys	Valid	Lehman Wick	Campanian	Aguja Formation	USA	A taphrosphyini bothremydid
Gamerabaena	Valid	Lyson Joyce	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)	Hell Creek Formation	USA
Itilochelys	Valid	Danilov Averianov Yarkov	Danian	Beryozovaya beds	Russia
Jiangxichelys	Valid	Tong Mo	Late Cretaceous	Ganzhou	China	A nanhsiungchelyid turtle.
Liaochelys	Valid	Zhou	Early Cretaceous	Jiufotang Formation	China	A macrobaenid turtle.
Mexichelys	Valid	Parham Pyenson	Late Campanian	Cerro del Pueblo Formation	Mexico	A sea turtle. A new genus for "Euclastes" coahuilaensis (Brinkman et al., 2009).
Pacifichelys	Valid	Parham Pyenson	Miocene		Peru USA	A sea turtle.
"Trionyx" kansaiensis	Valid	Vitek & Danilov	Late Cretaceous		Kazakhstan Tajikistan	A trionychid with unclear systematic position, a species of Trionyx sensu lato.

Archosauromorphs

Newly named basal archosauromorphs

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Azendohsaurus madagaskarensis	Valid	Flynn Nesbitt et al.	Ladinian/Carnian	Makay Formation	Madagascar	A basal archosauromorph.
Bentonyx	Valid	Langer Montefeltro et al.	Middle Triassic	Otter Sandstone Formation	England	A rhynchosaur.
Koilamasuchus	Valid	Ezcurra Lecuona Martinelli	Early Triassic	Quebrada de los Fósiles Formation	Argentina	The best-known basal archosauriform from South America.
Megalancosaurus endennae	Valid	Renesto Spielmann et al.	Alaunian (early Norian)	Zorzino Limestone Formation	Italy	A drepanosaurid that is known from MBSN 25, a partial skeleton (Partial postcranial skeleton).
Teyumbaita	Valid	Montefeltro Langer Schultz	Late Triassic	Caturrita Formation	Brazil	A rhynchosaur. A new genus for "Scaphonyx" sulcognathus (Azevedo & Schultz, 1987).
Uatchitodon schneideri	Valid	Mitchell Heckert Sues	Late Triassic	Cumnock Formation Bluewater Creek Formation	USA	A venomous archosauriform known only from isolated teeth.
Vallesaurus zorzinensis	Valid	Renesto Spielmann et al.	Alaunian (early Norian)	Zorzino Limestone Formation	Italy	A basal drepanosauromorph that is known from MCSNB 4783, a set of vertebrae and hindlimbs.

Archosaurs

Main article: 2010 in archosaur paleontology

Synapsids

Newly named non-mammalian synapsids

Name	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Beishanodon	Valid	Gao Fox et al.	Lower Triassic	Hongyanjing Formation	China	An eucynodont. The type species is Beishanodon youngi.
Chiniquodon kalanoro	Valid	Kammerer Flynn et al.	Middle Triassic? (Ladinian or Carnian)	Makay Formation	Madagascar	A cynodont.	File:Chinquodon.png Chiniquodon skull
Kombuisia antarctica	Valid	Fröbisch Angiekczyk Sidor	Early Triassic (Induan)	Fremouw Formation	Antarctica	A dicynodont.
Minicynodon	Valid	Bonaparte Schultz et al.	Carnian - Norian	Caturrita Formation	Brazil	A brasilodontid cynodont.
Prosictodon	Valid	Angielczyk Rubidge	Middle Permian	Abrahamskraal formation	South Africa	A pylaecephalid dicynodont. The type species is Prosictodon dubei.
Trucidocynodon	Valid	Oliveira Soares Schultz	Upper Triassic	Santa Maria Formation	Brazil	A cynodont. The type species is Trucidocynodon riograndensis.

Mammals

Main article: 2010 in paleomammalogy

Other animals

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Pywackia	Valid	Landing in Landing, English & Keppie	Late Cambrian	Tiñu Formation	Mexico	An animal of uncertain phylogenetic placement; it might be a bryozoan or an octocoral. The type species is Pywackia baileyi.

Plants

Angiosperms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Unit	Location	Notes	Images
Cornus piggae	Sp nov	Valid	Manchester, Xiang, and Xiang	Tiffanian	Sentinel Butte Formation, North Dakota	USA	Oldest member of Cornus subgenus Cornus.
Hymenaea allendis	sp nov	Valid	Calvillo-Canadell, Cevallos-Ferriz & Rico-Arce	Late Oligocene - Early Miocene	Mexican amber	Mexico	Second Hymenaea sp. from Mexican amber
Ploufolia	Gen. nov.	Valid	Sender et al.	Albian	Utrillas Formation	Spain
Sagaria	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Bravia, Barone Lumagab, & Mickle	Middle Albian	Monti Alburni, near Petina	Italy
Solaranthus	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Shaolin Zheng & Xin Wang	Middle Jurassic	Jiulongshan Formation	China	An early flowering plant.
Xingxueanthus	Gen et sp nov	Valid	Xin Wang & Shijun Wang	Middle Jurassic	Haifanggou Formation	China	An early flowering plant.

Footnotes

Complete author list

As science becomes more collaborative, papers with large numbers of authors are becoming more common. To prevent the deformation of the tables, these footnotes list the contributors to papers that erect new genera and have many authors.