2024 in paleontology

Reptiles

Synapsids

Non-mammalian synapsids

New taxa

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Dianoconodon[59]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Mao et al.	Early Jurassic	Lufeng Formation	China	A morganucodontan-like mammaliaform. The type species is D. youngi.
Docodon hercynicus[60]	Sp. nov	Valid	Martin et al.	Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian)	Süntel Formation	Germany
Ergetiis[61]	Gen. et sp. nov		Averianov et al.	Early Cretaceous	Batylykh Formation	Sakha Republic )	A tegotheriid docodont. The type species is E. ichchi.
Feredocodon[62]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Mao et al.	Middle Jurassic (Bathonian–Callovian)		China	A shuotheriid mammaliaform. The type species is F. chowi.
Nyaphulia[63]	Gen. et comb. nov	Valid	Duhamel et al.	Permian (Guadalupian)	Abrahamskraal Formation	South Africa	A basal dicynodont. New genus for "Eodicynodon " oelofseni, the type species.
Paratraversodon[64]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Kerber et al.	Triassic		Brazil	A traversodontid cynodont. The type species is P. franciscaensis.
Riojanodon[65]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Martinelli et al.	Triassic	Chañares Formation	Argentina	A chiniquodontid cynodont. The type species is R. nenoi.

Research

• Singh et al. (2024) provide evidence of a dramatic shift in the jaw functional morphology of carnivorous synapsids across the early-middle Permian transition, and interpret their findings as indicative of changes of feeding ecologies of predatory synapsids related to increasingly dynamic behaviors and interactions in the studied time interval.^[66]
• Evidence of functional differentiation of teeth of Mesenosaurus efremovi is presented by Maho et al. (2024).^[67]
• Maho, Holmes & Reisz (2024) describe new fossil material of large-bodied synapsids from the Richards Spur locality (Oklahoma, United States), including fossil material of a sphenacodontid which might be distinct from known members of the group and the first ophiacodontid material from this locality; the authors use photography, stipple drawings and coquille drawings for visual representation of the studied material, and argue that three forms of visual representation provide more information about the specimens compared to only using photographs.^[68]
• Benoit et al. (2024) report evidence of neurological adaptations of Cistecynodon parvus to low-frequency hearing and low-light conditions, evidence that facial bosses of Pachydectes elsi were likely richly innervated and better suited for display, communication or species recognition than physical combat, and evidence of a healed braincase injury in a specimen of Moschognathus whaitsi, interpreted as likely head-butting related injury resulting from play-fighting of juveniles.^[69]
• Sidor & Mann (2024) describe an articulated sternum and interclavicle of a specimen of Aelurognathus tigriceps from the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation (Zambia), providing new information on the anatomy of the sternum in gorgonopsians.^[70]
• Brant & Sidor (2024) describe a premaxilla of a member of the genus Inostrancevia from the Permian Usili Formation (Tanzania), representing the oldest record of the genus from the Southern Hemisphere reported to date.^[71]
• Benoit et al. (2024) reevaluate the provenance of three gorgonopsian specimens from purported Lower Triassic strata in the Karoo Basin (South Africa), and interpret the studied fossils as expanding the range of the genus Cyonosaurus higher up in the extinction zone, but don't confirm the survival of gorgonopsians past the Permian–Triassic extinction event.^[72]
• A study on the phylogeny of the
  therocephalians as paraphyletic with regards to cynodonts.^[73]
• A study on dental complexity in gomphodont cynodonts through time, indicating that the peak in postcanine complexity was reached early in the gomphodont evolution, is published by Hendrickx et al. (2024).[74]
• Kaiuca et al. (2024) provide new body mass estimates for multiple cynodont taxa, and report that rates of body size evolution were lower in prozostrodontians ancestral to the first Mammaliaformes than in other lineages.^[75]
• Averianov & Voyta (2024) reinterpret fossil material of a putative Triassic stem mammal Tikitherium copei as a tooth of a Neogene shrew.^[76]
• A study on synapsid species richness and distribution throughout the Mesozoic is published by Brocklehurst (2024), who finds evidence of two phases of decline of non-mammalian synapsids – a restriction of their geographic range between the Triassic and Middle Jurassic, and a decline in species richness during the Early Cretaceous.^[77]

Mammals

Other animals

New taxa

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Archiasterella acuminata[78]	Sp. nov		Zhang & Wang in Zhang et al.	Cambrian Stage 4	Balang Formation	China	A chancelloriid.
Beretella[79]	Gen. et sp. nov		Han, Guo, Wang and Qiang in Wang et al.	Cambrian Stage 2	Yanjiahe Formation	China	A member of Saccorhytida. The type species is B. spinosa.
Brigoconus[80]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Malinky & Geyer	Cambrian	Brigus Formation	Canada ( Newfoundland and Labrador)	A hyolith. Genus includes new species B. greavesi.
Conchicolites corbalengus[81]	Sp. nov		Vinn et al.	Ordovician (Hirnantian)		Estonia	A member of Cornulitida.
Cornulites levigatus[81]	Sp. nov		Vinn et al.	Ordovician (Hirnantian)		Estonia	A member of Cornulitida.
Cretacimermis dolor[82]	Sp. nov		Fang, Poinar & Luo in Fang et al.	Cretaceous	Burmese amber	Myanmar	A nematode belonging to the family Mermithidae.
Gaparella elenae[83]	Sp. nov	Valid	Luzhnaya	Cambrian		Mongolia	A problematic microfossil, possibly a sponge.
Gzhelistella[84]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Davydov et al.	Carboniferous (Gzhelian)	Kosherovo Formation	Russia ( Moscow Oblast)	A calcareous sponge. The type species is G. cornigera. Published online in 2024, but the issue date is listed as December 2023.
Levinoconus[80]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Malinky & Geyer	Cambrian	Brigus Formation	Canada ( Newfoundland and Labrador)	A hyolith. Genus includes new species L. florencei.
Lobodiscus[85]	Gen. et sp. nov		Zhao et al.	Ediacaran	Dengying Formation	China	A possible member of Trilobozoa. The type species is L. tribrachialis.
Porkuniconchus[86]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Vinn, Wilson & Toom	Ordovician (Hirnantian)	Ärina Formation	Estonia	A member of Cornulitida. The type species is P. fragilis.
Poutinella[80]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Malinky & Geyer	Cambrian	Brigus Formation	Canada ( Newfoundland and Labrador)	A hyolith. Genus includes new species P. crispenae.
Selkirkia tsering[87]	Sp. nov	Valid	Nanglu & Ortega-Hernández	Ordovician (Tremadocian)	Fezouata Formation	Morocco
Serpula? alicecooperi[88]	Sp. nov	Valid	Kočí et al.	Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian)	Hasle Formation	Denmark	A polychaete belonging to the family Serpulidae.
Sororistirps altynensis[89]	Sp. nov	Valid	Pervushov	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)		Russia ( Saratov Oblast)	A hexactinellid sponge belonging to the family Ventriculitidae.
Sororistirps antetubiforme[89]	Sp. nov	Valid	Pervushov	Late Cretaceous (Santonian)		Kazakhstan  Russia ( Samara Oblast  Saratov Oblast  Volgograd Oblast)	A hexactinellid sponge belonging to the family Ventriculitidae.
Sororistirps postradiatum[89]	Sp. nov	Valid	Pervushov	Late Cretaceous (Santonian)		Kazakhstan  Russia ( Samara Oblast  Saratov Oblast)	A hexactinellid sponge belonging to the family Ventriculitidae.
Timorebestia[90]	Gen. et sp. nov		Park et al.	Cambrian	Sirius Passet Lagerstätte	Greenland	A member of the stem group of Chaetognatha. The type species is T. koprii.
Toutonella[80]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Malinky & Geyer	Cambrian	Brigus Formation	Canada ( Newfoundland and Labrador)	A hyolith. Genus includes new species T. chaddockae.
Tribrachidium gehlingi[91]	Sp. nov	Valid	Botha & García-Bellido	Ediacaran	Rawnsley Quartzite	Australia

Research

• Cao, Meng & Cai (2024) use electrochemical methods to simulate the process of tube generation of
  Cloudina under the same phosphorus content as modern seawater.^[92]
• Wang et al. (2024) describe fossil material of two distinct types of archaeocyaths from the Cambrian Shuijingtuo and Xiannüdong formations (China), including fossils with complicated interior network of canals which might be remains of a water filtration mechanism more complex and efficient than the ones seen in sponges.[93]
• Review of events of decline in the evolutionary history of stromatoporoids is published by Kershaw & Jeon (2024).^[94]
• Turk et al. (2024) redescribe the type material of Archaeichnium haughtoni, and interpret it as one of the earliest examples of marine worm burrow linings in the fossil record reported to date.^[95]
• A specimen of Cricocosmia jinningensis preserved in the act of moulting is described from the Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte (China) by Yu, Wang & Han (2024), who present a reconstruction of the moulting process of C. jinningensis.^[96]
• A body fossil resembling tentacles of extant trypanorhynch tapeworms is described from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar by Luo et al. (2024).^[97]
• Yang et al. (2024) describe new fossil material of Gaoloufangchaeta bifurcus from the Cambrian Wulongqing Formation (China), and interpret G. bifurcus as the earliest known errantian annelid.^[98]
• Tubular fossils which might belong to early sabellids are described from the Upper Permian deposits in southern China by Słowiński, Clapham & Zatoń (2024), potentially expanding known range of sabellids during the late Paleozoic.^[99]
• Jamison-Todd et al. (2024) describe boring produced by members of the genus Osedax in marine reptile bones from the Cenomanian Lower Chalk (United Kingdom), Campanian Marlbrook Marl and Mooreville Chalk (Arkansas and Alabama, United States) and Maastrichtian Mons Basin (Belgium), providing evidence of the presence of Osedax on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean in the Cretaceous, as well as evidence of the presence of different morphotypes of borings which were possibly produced by different species.^[100]
• A study on the taxonomic and morphological diversity of Cambrian hyoliths, providing evidence of increase in diversity in the early Cambrian followed by decline in the Miaolingian, is published by Liu et al. (2024).^[101]

Other organisms

New taxa

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Colum tekini[102]	sp. nov	Valid	Sashida & Ito in Sashida et al.	Upper Triassic (lower Norian)		Thailand	A pseudodictyomitrid radiolarian. Published online in 2023, but the issue date is listed as January 2024.
Ghoshia januarensis[103]	Sp. nov	Valid	Denezine et al.	Ediacaran	Sete Lagoas Formation	Brazil	An organic-walled microfossil.
Lagenochitina tacobensis[104]	Sp. nov		Camina et al.	Devonian (Givetian)	Los Monos Formation	Bolivia	A chitinozoan.
Palaeorhopalon[105]	Gen. et sp. nov		Dai et al.	Ediacaran	Dengying Formation	China	A tubular organism of uncertain affinities. The type species is P. spiniferum.
Ramochitina candelariaensis[104]	Sp. nov		Camina et al.	Devonian (Givetian)		Bolivia	A chitinozoan.
Shufangtubulus[105]	Gen. et sp. nov		Dai & Hua in Dai et al.	Ediacaran	Dengying Formation	China	A tubular organism of uncertain affinities. The type species is S. inornatus.
Tanaisina[106]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Dernov in Dernov & Poletaev	Carboniferous (Bashkirian)	Dyakove Group	Ukraine	An organism of uncertain affinities, with similarities to Escumasia, Caledonicratis and the hydrozoan Drevotella proteana. The type species is T. mavka.

Research

• Demoulin et al. (2024) interpret Polysphaeroides filiformis from the Proterozoic Mbuji-Mayi Supergroup (Democratic Republic of the Congo) as a photosynthetic cyanobacterium representing the oldest unambiguous complex fossil member of Stigonemataceae known to date.^[107]
• Evidence of preservation of thylakoid membranes within 1.78- to 1.73-billion-year-old fossils of Navifusa majensis from the McDermott Formation (Tawallah Group; Australia) and in 1.01- to 0.9-billion-year-old specimens from the Grassy Bay Formation (Shaler Supergroup; Canada) is reported by Demoulin et al. (2024).^[108]
• A study comparing the preservation of fossils of cyanobacterial assemblages from the Ediacaran Gaojiashan biota and from the Cambrian Kuanchuanpu biota (China) is published by Min et al. (2024), who interpret the differences of preservation modes of the studied fossils as resulting from changes of atmospheric CO₂ levels, which may have risen to approximately ten times present atmospheric level during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition, and from related changes in marine chemical conditions.^[109]
• McMahon et al. (2024) describe fossil material of a colony-forming entophysalid cyanobacterium from the Devonian Rhynie chert (Scotland, United Kingdom) with similarities to extant Entophysalis and mostly Proterozoic Eoentophysalis, and interpret this finding as suggestive of persistence of a single lineage with a broad environmental tolerance across 2 billion years.^[110]
• Miao et al. (2024) describe 1.63-billion-year-old fossils of Qingshania magnifica from the Chuanlinggou Formation (China), and interpret the studied fossils as indicating that simple multicellularity evolved early in eukaryote history.^[111]
• A study on the depositional setting of the strata of the Diabaig and Loch na Dal formations (Scotland, United Kingdom) preserving approximately 1-billion-year-old eukaryotic microfossils is published by Nielson, Stüeken & Prave (2024), who interpret their findings as indicating that early eukaryotes from the studied formations lived in estuaries rather than lakes, and were likely exposed to frequently changing water conditions.^[112]
• A study on the impact of the climatic and environmental changes across the Cenozoic on the distribution and diversity of planktonic marine foraminifera is published by Swain et al. (2024).^[113]
• Surprenant & Droser (2024) compile a database of all occurrences of non-biomineral Ediacaran tubular organisms, and report evidence of previously unrecognized morphological diversity of the studied organisms.^[114]

History of life in general

• Evidence of impact of ocean oxygenation events from Cryogenian to Cambrian on early evolution of animals is presented by Kaiho et al. (2024).^[115]
• Ediacaran shallow-marine macrofossils from the Llangynog Inlier (Wales, United Kingdom) are determined to be approximately 564.09 million years old by Clarke et al. (2024).^[116]
• New silicified fossil assemblage is described from the Ediacaran Dengying Formation (Shaanxi, China) by Dai et al. (2024), who interpret fossil material of Cloudina from this assemblage as indicating that Cloudina had a worldwide distribution in different paleoecologies and biofacies.^[117]
• Evidence from the strata of the Dengying, Yanjiahe and Shuijingtuo formations (China), interpreted as indicative of the existence of a relationship between variable oceanic oxygenation, nitrogen supply and the evolution of early Cambrian life, is presented by Wei et al. (2024).^[118]
• Slater (2024) describes a diverse assemblage of arthropod and molluscan microfossil from the Cambrian Stage 3 Mickwitzia Sandstone (Sweden), providing evidence of diversification of molluscan radulae which happened by the early Cambrian.^[119]
• Evidence indicating that pulse of supracrustal deformation along the edge of west Gondwana caused a series of environmental changes that resulted in the Cambrian Stage 4 Sinsk event (the first major extinction of the Phanerozoic) is presented by Myrow et al. (2024).^[120]
• Evidence indicating that patterns of extinctions of marine invertebrates over the past 485 million years were affected by physiological traits of invertebrates and by climate changes is presented by Malanoski et al. (2024).^[121]
• Saleh et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new Early Ordovician Lagerstätte from Montagne Noire (France), preserving fossils of a diverse polar assemblage of both biomineralized and soft-bodied organisms (the Cabrières Biota).^[122]
• The Devonian vertebrate assemblage from the Cloghnan Shale at Jemalong (New South Wales, Australia), including fossil material of Metaxygnathus, is interpreted as more likely Givetian–Frasnian than Famennian in age by Young (2024).^[123]
• Faure-Brac et al. (2024) study the size of the primary vascular canals in early
  thermophysiology of the studied taxa, and argue that amniotes were ancestrally ectotherms, with different amniote group evolving endothermy independently.^[124]
• Evidence from strata from the Permian–Triassic transition from southwest China, interpreted as indicative of temporal decoupling of the terrestrial and marine extinctions in Permian tropics during the Permian–Triassic extinction event and of a protracted terrestrial extinction spanning approximately 1 million years, is presented by Wu et al. (2024).^[125]
• A study on the extinction selectivity of marine animals during the Permian–Triassic extinction event is published by Song et al. (2024), who find that animal groups with hemoglobin and hemocyanin were less affected by the extinction than animals with hemerythrin or relying on diffusion of oxygen.^[126]
• Zhou et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new Early Triassic fossil assemblage dominated by ammonites and arthropods (the Wangmo biota) from the Luolou Formation (China), interpreted as evidence of the presence of a complex marine ecosystem that was rebuilt after the Permian–Triassic extinction event.^[127]
• Revision of the fossil record of the Triassic tetrapods from Russia is published by Shishkin et al. (2024).^[128]
• Simms & Drost (2024) interpret Triassic caves within Carboniferous limestone outcrops in south-west Britain as Carnian in age, and consider terrestrial vertebrate fossils preserved in those caves to be Carnian or at least significantly pre-Rhaetian in age.^[129]
• A study on the femoral histology of amniotes from the Triassic Ischigualasto Formation (Argentina) is published by Curry Rogers et al. (2024), who find that early dinosaurs known from this formation grew at least as quickly as sauropodomorph and theropod dinosaurs from the later Mesozoic, and that their elevated growth rates did not set them apart from other amniotes living at the same time.^[130]
• Taphonomic revision of Jurassic marine reptile fossils from the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese (Italy) is published by Serafini et al. (2024), who find similarities between the studied fossil material and modern whale falls in pelagic-bathyal zones, and interpret those similarities as consistent with a bathyal, deep-water interpretation of the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese depositional setting.^[131]
• A study on patterns of diversity changes of Late Jurassic tetrapods from the Morrison Formation through time and space is published by Maidment (2024).^[132]
• Evidence from calcareous nannofossils and small foraminifera from the Transylvanian Basin (
  sauropods on the island, is presented by Bălc et al. (2024).^[133]
• A study on the body size evolution of Mesozoic dinosaurs (including birds) and mammaliaforms is published by Wilson et al. (2024), who find no evidence that Bergmann's rule applied to the studied taxa.^[134]
• Boles et al. (2024) describe a new assemblage of vertebrate microfossils from the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition from the Hornerstown Formation (New Jersey, United States), providing evidence of slow recovery of elasmobranchs and ray-finned fish after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.^[135]
• Fossil material of a reef biota that survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, including scleractinian corals and domical and bulbous growth forms which might be fossils of calcified sponges, is described from the Maastrichtian and Paleocene strata from the Adriatic islands Brač and Hvar (Croatia) by Martinuš et al. (2024).^[136]
• New Miocene and Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages are described from the Sin Charoen sandpit (Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand) by Naksri et al. (2024), who intepret the Pleistocene assemblage as having strong faunal relationships with the Early-Middle Pleistocene faunas of Java (Indonesia).^[137]
• Antoine et al. (2024) report the discovery of fossil material from Kourou (French Guiana) providing evidence of the presence of diverse foraminifer, plant and animal communities near the equator in the 130,000-115,000 years ago time interval, as well as evidence of marine retreat and dryer conditions with a savanna-dominated landscape and episodes of fire during the onset of the Last Glacial Period.^[138]

Other research

• 563-million-year-old horizontal markings with similarities to horizontal animal trace fossils, reported from the Itajaí Basin (Brazil), are interpreted as pseudofossils of tectonic origin by Becker Kerber et al. (2024), who propose a set of criteria which can be used to evaluate the identity of putative trace fossils.^[139]
• A study on silicified fossils from the Ordovician Edinburg Formation (Virginia, United States), aiming to determine sources of potential bias in fossil recovery, is published by Jacobs et al. (2024).^[140]
• Evidence interpreted as indicative of strong ozone depletion of the atmosphere at the onset of the Permian–Triassic extinction event is presented by Li et al. (2024).^[141]
• Evidence from mercury anomalies and fern spores from the Lower Saxony Basin (Germany), interpreted as indicative of persistence of volcanic-induced mercury pollution after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event resulting in high abundances of malformed fern spores during the Triassic–Jurassic transition and during the Hettangian, is presented by Bos et al. (2024).^[142]
• Woolley et al. (2024) attempt to quantify the amount of phylogenetic information available in the global fossil records of non-avian theropod dinosaurs, Mesozoic birds and squamates, and find that the studies of the phylogenic relationships of extinct animals are less affected by disproportionate representation of taxa from specific geologic units (especially Lagerstätten) in the evolutionary tree when the entire global fossil record of the studied groups, rather than just fossils from specific geologic units, preserves higher amount of phylogenetic information; the authors also find that Late Cretaceous squamate fossils from the Djadochta and Barun Goyot formations (Mongolia) provide a diproportionally large amount of phylogenetic information available in the squamate fossil record.^[143]
• Eberth (2024) revises the
  stratigraphic architecture of the Campanian Belly River Group (Alberta, Canada).^[144]
• Evidence indicating that, in spite of high global temperatures, oxygen availability in the waters of the tropical North Pacific actually rose during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, is presented by Moretti et al. (2024), who argue that this oxygen rise in the ocean might have prevented a mass extinction during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.^[145]
• Evidence of change in fire regime in northern Australia that happened at least 11,000 years ago, resulting in fires becoming more frequent but less intense and interpreted as resulting from Indigenous fire management, is presented by Bird et al. (2024).^[146]
• Wiseman, Charles & Hutchinson (2024) compare multiple reconstructions of the musculature of Australopithecus afarensis, evaluating the capability of different models to maintain an upright, single-support limb posture, and find that models which are otherwise identical might be either able or unable support the body posed on an extended limb solely as a result of changing the input architectural parameters and including or excluding an elastic tendon.^[147]
• Sullivan et al. (2024) argue that the process of generating rigorous reconstructions of extinct animals can lead to fresh inferences about the anatomy of the studied animals, and support their claims with examples from dinosaur paleontology.^[148]
• Reumer (2024) hypothesizes that Beringer's Lying Stones represent the first recorded case of an intentional paleontological fraud in history, and might have been perpetrated by Johann Beringer himself.^[149]

Paleoclimate

• A multibillion-year history of seawater δ¹⁸O, temperature, and marine and terrestrial clay abundance is reconstructed by Isson & Rauzi (2024), who report evidence interpreted as indicative of temperate Proterozoic climate, and evidence indicating that declines in clay authigenesis coincided with Paleozoic and Cenozoic cooling, the expansion of siliceous life, and the radiation of land plants.^[150]
• Gurung et al. (2024) use a new vegetation and climate model to study links between plant geographical range, the long-term carbon cycle and climate, and find that reduced geographical range of plants in Pangaea resulted in increased atmospheric CO₂ concentration during the Triassic and Jurassic periods, while the expande geographical range of plants after the breakup of Pangaea amplified global CO₂ removal.^[151]
• A study on the geochemistry of Jurassic deposits of the External Rif Chain (Morocco), providing evidence of climate changes in northwest Gondwana during the Jurassic period (from cool climate with low rainfall and productivity during the Early Jurassic, to moister, warmer climate during the Middle and Late Jurassic, subsequently returning to arid and cool climate during the Late Jurassic), is published by Kairouani et al. (2024).^[152]
• Evidence indicating that small to large ice sheets were present in Antarctica throughout much of the Early Cretaceous, briefly melting in response to episodic volcanism, is presented by Nordt, Breecker & White (2024).^[153]
• Clark et al. (2024) present a new reconstruction of global temperature changes over the past 4.5 million years, interpreted as consistent with changes in the carbon cycle.^[154]

Deaths

• Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, and fighting pollution. She was the daughter of Aldo Leopold.^[155]