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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 1874.
Dinosaurs
Publications
- Richard Owen publishes a monograph on Wealden and Purbeck reptiles, classifying Scelidosaurus, Iguanodon and Echinodon in the new dinosaur clade Prionodontia.[2]
Newly named dinosaurs
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) | A hadrosaurid. | ||||||
| Early Cretaceous | A dubious stegosaur. | ||||||
| Preoccupied. | Hulke, 1874 | Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) | Preoccupied by Edward Drinker Cope, 1869. | ||||
| Sauvage | Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) | Unnamed unit | A dubious sauropod. | ||||
| Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian) | Junior subjective synonym of Triceratops. | ||||||
Ichthyosaurs
New taxa
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valid | Seeley | Middle Jurassic (Callovian) | An ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur. | ||||
Plesiosaurs
New taxa
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valid | Seeley | Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) | A cryptoclidid, new genus for "Plesiosaurus" megadeirus Seeley, 1869 | ||||
| Valid | Seeley | Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) | A member of Microcleididae; new genus for "Plesiosaurus" rugosus Owen, 1840. | ||||
| Valid | Hector | Late Cretaceous (late Campanian-Maastrichtian) | An elasmosaurid. | ||||
| Valid | Seeley | Middle Jurassic (Callovian) | A cryptoclidid. | ||||
| Valid | Seeley | Early Jurassic (Toarcian) | A rhomaleosaurid; new genus for "Plesiosaurus" cramptoni Carte and Bailey, 1863 | ||||
Pterosaurs
Newly named pterosaurs
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valid | Owen | Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) | A member of Ornithocheiridae. | ||||
| Jr. synonym | Owen | Jr. synonym of Ornithocheirus. | |||||
Squamates
Newly named mosasaurs
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taniwhasaurus | Valid | Hector | Late Campanian | Conway Formation |  | 
References
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Owen, R. (1874). Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Wealden and Purbeck Formations. Supplement No. V. Dinosauria (Iguanodon). Palaeontographical Society. pp. 1–18.








