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 1948.
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Arthropods
Newly named insects
Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images |
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Gen nov | valid | Aczél | A big-headed fly; new genus for Protonephrocerus collini |
Archosauromorphs
Newly named dinosaurs
Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list.[3]
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | |
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Lukousaurus | Valid taxon |
| Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) | May be a crocodylomorph rather than a theropod.[4] | ||||
Sinosaurus[5] | Valid taxon |
| Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian) | A dilophosaurid. (Formerly Dilophosaurus sinensis) |
Pterosaurs
New taxa
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
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Valid | Rjabinin | Late Jurassic (Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian) | An anurognathid. |
Synapsids
Non-mammalian
Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images |
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Valid | Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone | A gorgonopsid. | |||||
Valid | Broom and Robinson | Late Permian | For a time considered a junior synonym, its validity was reinstated in 2015. | ||||
Valid | A dicynodont. | ||||||
Junior synonym | Broom | Late Permian | A junior synonym of the gorgonopsid Aelurognathus | ||||
Valid | Boonstra | Middle Permian | Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone | A pylaecephalid. Like Diictodon, it was also a burrower. | |||
Valid | Broom | Late Permian | Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone | A junior synonym of the gorgonopsid Aelurognathus. | |||
Valid | Broom and Robinson | Late Permian-Early Triassic | Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone |