1980 in paleontology
overview of the events of 1980 in paleontology
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. 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 1980.
Bryophytes
Arthropods
Insects
Molluscs
Newly named bivalves
Archosauromorphs
Newly named dinosaurs
Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.
Note: the name Lancangosaurus is mistakenly treated as a nomen nudum synonymous with Datousaurus (because Dong et al. 1983 believed it to be conspecific with Datousaurus). However, it is actually an early spelling variant of another nomen nudum, Lancangjiangosaurus.
Newly named birds
Pterosauria
Newly named pterosaurs
Lepidosauromorphs
Plesiosaurs
Plesiosaur gastroliths documented.
References
Darby, D. G. and Ojakangas, R. W.; 1980; Gastroliths from a Late Cretaceous Plesiosaur; Journal of Paleontology; 54(3) pp.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1980 in paleontology” as overview of the events of 1980 in paleontology. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4579541. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980 and 1983.
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