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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  | 
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| 
 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.
 
