Happy 30th: The discoveries of 1988

This weekend, I turned 30 years old. It’s a milestone for me, of course, but it reminded me about how much can change in 30 years.  30 years ago the dinosaur film was Land Before Time, when dinosaurs were inspired by the works of Charles Knight and William Stout before the Jurassic Park paradigm took over.  30 years ago,  the Berlin Wall still stood dividing Germany, the first Bush became president coasting in on Reagan’s popularity, and computer graphics in film were limited to a short by Pixar. 

There were many milestone in paleontology as well-new species were described, that would become iconic many years later.  So, I’ve decided to showcase all the fossil tetrapods described in 1988.  I can’t go into any depth about each, but there will be quite a few of them, so hold on your butts.

In terms of amphibians, very early forms were discovered. David Berman, David Eberth, and Don Brinkman described a Pantylid from the Carboniferous-Permian transition, Stegotretus, from New Mexico’s plentiful early Permian rocks. The earliest salamander, the axolotllike Marmorerpeton from the Kilmaluag Formation of Scotland, was described by Susan Evans, Andrew Milner, and F. Musett. Finally, Wealdenbatrachus from La Huérguina Formation, was discovered by Bernard Krebs alongside many small reptiles. 

Reptiles in general saw quite a few discoveries. Lizards are represented by Selmasaurus, a small mosasaur from Alabama discovered by Samuel W. Shannon and Kenneth R. Wright. The Choristoderan Irenosaurus was described from the Hühteeg Formation of Cretaceous Mongolia by Mikhail Efimov. The primitive archosaur Dongusuchus was described from Andrey Sennikov from the rich Donguz formation of Permian Russia.   Only one new pterosaur was described-Tupuxara from the Santa Formation of Brazil, by Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almedia Campos.

Two new crocodiles were discovered-Amargasuchus from Cretaceous Argentina by the great Luis M. Chiappe, and Chrysochampsa from the Paleocene-Eocene transition in the USA. However, the dinosaurs remain the best represented reptile group in terms of new genera.   

Sauropods, as always, appear. In this year it was the dubious Protognathosaurus from China’s lower Dashanpu formation described by the prolific George Olshevsky and the very early Kotsaurus from early Jurassic India discovered by P. Yadagiri. However, two new sauropod genera were also separated from much older taxa: sauropod guru James A Jensen determined that some Camarasaur bones were distinct enough to be a separate genus, Cathetosaurus, and Werner Janensch’s iconic Tanzanian Brachiosaur was determined by anatomist and artist Gregory Paul to be a distinct genus called Giraffititan.

This also occurred in non-sauropod dinosaurs-a Gorgosaur specimen belonging to Cleveland’s natural history Museum was proposed by its curator Michael Williams, tyrannosaur expert Phillip Currie, and the revolutionary paleontologist Robert Bakker to be Nanotyrannus. This specimen remains highly debated, and most paleontologists consider it a juvenile Tyrannosaurus. Bakker also separated an ankylosaur, Denverosaurus, found in the United States, from the Canadian Edmontonia and Panoplosaurus. Again, this is controversial-Kenneth Carpenter and Michael Burns have debated over the validity of the species.

Less controversial are new finds from old sites; Jack horner and David B. Weishampel had long been familiar with the Cretaceous USA Two Medicine Formation, and there discovered a new small ornithopod Orodromeus, and likewise Rinchen Barsbold’s extensive prospecting of the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia led to the discovery of a new ornithomimid Anserimimus. 

More modern dinosaurs, birds, were also described-Peter W. Houde found the False Tinamou, Pseudocrypturus from Wyoming’s Green River Formation. Herculano Alvarengera found an extinct lineage of galliform bird, Taubacrex, from Miocene rocks in Sao Paolo. Finally, P.R. Willener discovered a genus and two species of wren from Pleistocene New Zealand, Pachyplichas.

Finally, mammals. Discoveries range from the most basal to the most derived of mammals. On the basal end, there is Afrodon, a primitive mammal from Paleocene Morroco, discovered by Emmanuel Gheerbrant.  

 On the derived end, Omar and Linares described Desmodus draculae, a much larger species of vampire bat (giant vampire bat usually means average size insectivore bat) from Ice Age Venezuela that probably specialized in megafauna. Another derived animal was a new adapiform primate from mid-Eocene France, discovered by Marc Godinot.  There was another new species of primate, Lufengipithecus hudiensis, a Sivapithecine ape from late Miocene Yuanmou.

It was a very good year for Christian de Muizon of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle and Larry Marshall of Arizona’s many museums as they described many new taxa from South America.  De Muizon described a Kentriodont dolphin Atocetus, a river dolphin Brachydelphis, and a pygmy sperm whale Scaphokogia, while Larry Marshall described a La Ventan marsupial Hondalgaus. Together they described Pucadelphys, a marsupial relative that evolved right after the K-Pg extinction.  

Other marine mammals discovered in 1988 were the mysterious bigtoothed walrus Pelagiarctos from California, described by Lawrence Barnes, and the recently extinct Takikawa sea cow from Hokkaido, described by Hitoshi Furusawa. 

Finally, it was a good year for ungulates. Martin Pickford, a specialist in East African mammals, found Cainochoerus, an early pig. From mid-Eocene China, I.A. Vislobokova described Eoentelodon, the earliest in the lineage of entelodont whippomorphs. Debius Geraads found a very early species of white Rhino from Turkey, Ceratotherium neumayri. Finally, a new very large lipotern Xenorhinotherium was described from Brazil and Venezula by Castor Cartelle and Gisele Lessa.

As you can guess, a lot can happen in a year paleontologically. Just check out any good paleo blog’s year in review-they’ve gotten so good I’ve given up with trying to compete with them. All these taxa celebrate their 30^th birthdays this year, so raise a glass and remember the revolutionary discoveries of the past, and hope for more in the future.