Arthropods
Cephalopods
Three new species of extinct
Octopoda discovered in 2009. The species – ''
Keuppia hyperbolaris'', ''
Keuppia levante
''Keuppia'' is an extinct genus of octopus.
Taxonomy
It consists of two species, ''Keuppia hyperbolaris'' and ''Keuppia levante'', both of which lived approximately 95 million years ago. Both species were found in fossilized form, which is very u ...
'', and ''
Styletoctopus annae'' – lived about 95 million years ago, and bear a strong resemblance to modern octopuses, suggesting that the
Octopoda order has remained relatively unchanged for tens of millions of years. The fossils included evidence of
arms, muscles, rows of suckers,
ink, and internal gills. The discovery was made by a team led by Dirk Fuchs of the
Freie University
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and ...
, which is located at Berlin, Germany.
[Rare fossil octopuses found]
NBC News, March 18, 2009 The fossils were found at Hakel and Hadjoula,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
.
[ New Octopus from the late Cretaceous of Hakel and Hadjoula, Lebanon]
Palaeontology, Volume 52, Issue 1, Pages 65-81 Various new ammonoid taxa were named, including ''
Ivoites''.
Cartilaginous fish
Bony fish
*
Amphibians
Newly named amphibians
Basal reptiles
Newly named basal reptiles
Turtles
Newly named turtles
Archosauromorphs
Basal archosauromorphs
Archosaurs
Lepidosauromorphs
Basal lepidosauromorphs
Plesiosaurs
*In 2009, in
Svalbard, Norway a new pliosaur was found by
Jorn Hurum. It currently is codenamed as "
Predator X
''Pliosaurus'' (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages (Late Jurassic) of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marin ...
."
*
Squamates
Synapsids
Non-mammalian
Mammals
Plants
Angiosperms
Relevant research in other sciences
Evolutionary biology
* A study is published that proposes that females from certain taxa use ornaments as a criterion for
mate choice
Mate choice is one of the primary mechanisms under which evolution can occur. It is characterized by a "selective response by animals to particular stimuli" which can be observed as behavior.Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon. "Mate Choice." Mate Choic ...
because other dimorphic structures, like biological "weaponry" could be used to coerce or force them to mate.
* A study concludes that biotic factors have more pronounced local and short term evolutionary impacts than abiotic factors, which in turn have a more pronounced effect through time and on biodiversity as a whole.
Extinction
A study noting the effects of the KT mass extinction on Earth's modern biota is published.
Geology
*
Ichnology
*
Paleobiogeography
*
Paleoecology
*
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.
References
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