Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoriclife 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 2000.
A five foot long troodontid. Mysteriously, skulls of extremely small juveniles have been recovered from an oviraptorosaur nest. This may be evidence of brood parasitism or predator-prey relationships between the two species.
A Diomedeoididae Fischer, 1985, transferred to Diomedeoides Fischer, 1985 by Mayr, Peters & Rietschel, 2002 and to Rupelornis van Beneden, 1871 by Mayr & Smith, 2012.
An Enantiornithes, described in 1997 but the name was a labelname, so a Nomen Nudum, in 2000 Hou gave a short description in the Picture Book of Chinese Fossil Birds, making the name valid.
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.
^Gini-Newman, Garfield; Graham, Elizabeth (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN9780070887398. OCLC46769716.
^Wang, Y.; Manchester, S. R. (2000). "Chaneya, a new genus of winged fruit from the Tertiary of North America and eastern Asia". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 161 (1): 167–178. doi:10.1086/314227. PMID10648207. S2CID45052368.
^Akhmetiev, M.A.; Manchester, S.R. (2000). "A new species of Palaeocarpinus (Betulaceae) from the Paleogene of Eastern Sikhote-Alin". Paleontological Journal. 34: 467–474.
^ abEskov, K. Y.; Zonstein, S. L. (2000). "The First Ctenizoid Mygalomorph Spiders from Eocene Baltic Amber (Araneida: Mygalomorphae: Ctenizidae)". Paleontological Journal. 34 (suppl. 3): S268–S274. Part 1; Part 2 (PDF).
^Bechly, G.; Makarkin, V. N. (2016). "A new gigantic lacewing species (Insecta: Neuroptera) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil confirms the occurrence of Kalligrammatidae in the Americas". Cretaceous Research. 58: 135–140. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.10.014.
^Eileen D. Grogan; Richard Lund (2000). "Debeerius ellefseni (Fam. Nov., Gen. Nov., Spec. Nov.), an autodiastylic chondrichthyan from the Mississippian Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana (USA), the relationships of the chondrichthyes, and comments on gnathostome evolution". Journal of Morphology. 243 (3): 219–245. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4687(200003)243:3<219::AID-JMOR1>3.0.CO;2-1. PMID10681469. S2CID21466183.
^Baez, A.M.; Trueb, L. & Calvo, J.O. (2000). "The earliest known pioid frog from South America: a new genus from the middle Cretaceous of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 20 (3): 490–500. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0490:TEKPFF]2.0.CO;2. S2CID86183634.
^Wang, Y. (2000). "A new salamander (Amphibia: Caudata) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 38 (2): 100–103. doi:10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.2000.02.003.
^ abMaisch, M.W.; Matzke, A.T. (2000). "The Ichthyosauria". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) (298): 1–160.
^Yin G.; Zhou X.; Cao Z.; Yu Y; Luo Y. (2000). "A preliminary study on the Early Late Triassic marine reptiles from Guanling Guizhou, China". Geology, Geochemistry. 28 (3): 1–22.
^Efimov, M.B.; Gubin, Y.M. & Kurzanov, S.M. (2000). "New primitive crocodile (Crocodylomorpha: Shartegosuchidae) from the Jurassic of Mongolia". Paleontological Journal. 34: 238–241.
^Efimov, M.B. & Leshchinskiy, S.V. (2000). First finding of the fossil crocodile skull in Siberia [in Russian]. In: Komarov, A.V., ed., Materialy regional’noj konferencii geologov Sibiri, Dal’nego Vostoka i Severo−Vostoka Rossii. Tom II, 361–363. GalaPress, Tomsk.
^Larrson, H.C.E.; Gado, B. (2000). "A new early Cretaceous crocodyliform from Niger". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 217 (1): 131–141. doi:10.1127/njgpa/217/2000/131.
^Burnham, D.A., K.L. Derstler, P.J. Currie, R.T. Bakker, Z. Zhou, and J.H. Ostrom. 2000. Remarkable new birdlike dinosaur (Theropoda: Maniraptora) from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions 13: pp. 1-14.
^Norell, M.A., P.J. Makovicky, and J.M. Clark. 2000. A new troodontid theropod from Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia. Jpornal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20: pp. 1-11.
^Godefroit P., S. Zan, and L. Jin. 2000. Charonosaurus jiayinensis n.g., n.sp., a lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Maastrichtian of northeastern China. Comptes Rendus Académie des Sciences du Paris, Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes 330: pp. 875–882 (Paléontologie des Vertébrés).
^Fang, Pang, Lü, Zhang, Pan, Wang, Li, and Cheng. 2000. Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic divisions of the Lufeng region of Yunnan Province. Pp. 208-214 in: Proceedings of the Third National Stratigraphical Conference of China. Geological Publishing House, Beijing.
^Azuma, Y. and P.J. Currie. 2000. A new carnosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Japan. Can. J. Earth Sci. 37: pp. 1735-1753.
^Ford, T.L. 2000. A review of ankylosaur osteoderms from New Mexico and a preliminary review of ankylosaur armor. In: Dinosaurs of New Mexico (S.G. Lucas and A.B. Heckert, eds.). New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletin 17: pp. 157-176.
^Sereno, P.C. 2000. The fossil record, systematics and evolution of pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians from Asia. In The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia (M.J. Benton, M.A. Shishkin, D.M. Unwin, and E.N. Kurochkin, eds.). Cambridge University Press, New York: pp. 480-516.
^Pang and Cheng. 2000. A new family of sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Tianzhen, Shanxi Province, China. Acta Geologica Sinica 74 (2): pp. 117-125.
^Coria, R.A. and L. Salgado. 2000. A basal Abelisauria Novas 1992 (Theropoda- Ceratosauria) from the Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina. Gaia 15: pp. 89-102
^Xu, X., X. Wang, and H. You. 2000. A primitive ornithopod from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 38 (4): pp. 318-325.
^Xu, Z., X.J. Zhao, J.-C. Lu, W.-B. Huang, Z.-Y. Li Z., and Z.-M. Dong. 2000. A new Iguanodontian from Sangping Formation of Neixiang, Henan and its stratigraphical implications. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 38 (3): pp. 176-191.
^Barsbold, R.; Osmólska, H.; Watabe, M.; Currie, P.J.; Tsogtbaatar, K. (2000). "A new oviraptorosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from Mongolia: the first dinosaur with a pygostyle". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 45 (2): 97–106.
^de Klerk W.J.; Forster C.A.; Sampson S.D.; Chinsamy A.; Ross C.F. (2000). "A new coelurosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 20 (2): 324–332. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0324:ancdft]2.0.co;2. S2CID128622530.
^Olshevsky, G. 2000. An annotated checklist of dinosaur species by continent. Mesozoic Meanderings 3: pp. 1-157.
^Salgado L., Azpilicueta C. (2000). "Un nuevo saltasaurino (Sauropoda, Titanosauridae) de la provincia de Rio Negro (Formacion Allen, Cretacico Superior), Patagonia, Argentina". Ameghiniana. 37 (3): 259–264.
^Wedel M.J., R.L. Cifelli, and R.K. Sanders. 2000. Osteology, paleobiology, and relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. Acta Palaeontologica Polinica 45 (4): pp. 343–388
^Bonaparte, J.F., W.D. Heinrich, and R. Wild. 2000. Review of Janenschia Wild, with the description of a new sauropod from the Tendaguru beds of Tanzania and a discussion on the systematic value of procoelous caudal vertebrae in the Sauropoda. Palaeontographica A
256: pp. 25–76.
^Steven M. Goodman (2000). "A Description of a New Species of Brachypteracias (Family Brachypteraciidae) from the Holocene of Madagascar". Ostrich. 71 (1–2): 318–322. doi:10.1080/00306525.2000.9639941. S2CID83685435.
^ abGerald Mayr (2000). "Charadriiform Birds from the Early Oligocene of Céreste (France) and the Middle Eocene of Messel (Hessen, Germany)". Géobios. 33 (5): 625–636. doi:10.1016/s0016-6995(00)80034-0.
^Dieter S. Peters; Ali Hamedani (2000). "Frigidafons babaheydariensis n. sp., ein Sturmvogel aus dem Oligozän des Irans (Aves: Procellariidae)". Senckenbergiana Lethaea. 80 (1): 29–37. doi:10.1007/bf03043661. S2CID127216323.
^Gareth J. Dyke; Joanne H. Cooper (2000). "A New Psittaciform Bird from the London Clay (Lower Eocene) of England". Palaeontology. 43 (2): 271–285. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00126. S2CID84812434.
^Kellner, A.W.A.; Tomida, Y. (2000). "Description of a new species of Anhangueridae (Pterodactyloidea) with comments on the pterosaur fauna from the Santana Formation (Aptian-Albian), northeastern Brazil". National Science Museum Monograph (17): 1–135.
^Kurkin, A.A. (2000). "New dicynodonts from the Upper Permian of the Vyatka Basin". Paleontological Journal. 34 (supplement 2): S203–S210.
^Abdala, F.; Ribeiro, A.M. (2000). "A new therioherpetid cynodont from the Santa Maria Formation (middle Late Triassic), southern Brazil". Geodiversitas. 22 (4): 589–596.
^ abTatarinov, L.P. (2000). "New material on Scaloposaurians (Reptilia, Theriodontia) from the Upper Permian of the Kotelnich Locality, Kirov Region". Paleontological Journal. 34 (supplement 2): S187–S202.
^ abFlynn, J.J.; Parrish, J.M.; Rakotosamimanana, B.; Ranivoharimanana, L.; Simpson, W.F. & Wyss, A.R. (2000). "New traversodontids (Synapsida: Eucynodontia) from the Triassic of Madagascar". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 20 (3): 422–427. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0422:NTSEFT]2.0.CO;2. S2CID130041740.
^ abIvakhnenko, M.F. (2000). "The Nikkasauridae—Problematic primitive therapsids from the Late Permian of the Mezen Localities". Paleontological Journal. 34 (supplement 2): S179–S186.
^Tatarinov, L.P. (2000). "A new gorgonopid (Reptilia, Theriodontia) from the Upper Permian of the Vologda Region". Paleontological Journal. 34 (1): 75–83.
^Kalandadze, N.N.; Kurkin, A.A. (2000). "A new Permian dicynodont and the question of the origin of the kannemeyeroidea". Paleontological Journal. 34 (6): 642–649.