1865 in paleontology
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 1865.
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Newly named archosauromorphs
    
    Newly named basal archosauromorphs
    
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Newly named dinosaurs
    
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | Images | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 
 Preoccupied.  | 
 Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian)  | 
 An ornithomimid. Preoccupied by Owen 1854.  | 
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| 
 Preoccupied  | 
 Hitchcock  | 
 Preoccupied by Fitzinger, 1843. Later renamed Amphisaurus.  | 
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 Valid  | 
 Sir Richard Owen vide Anonymous.  | 
 Early Cretaceous (Barremian)  | 
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| 
 Preoccupied.  | 
 Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian)  | 
 Preoccupied by Duméril 1853 Later renamed Diplotomodon.  | 
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Plesiosaurs
    
    Newly named plesiosaurs
    
 
| Name | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 
 Leidy  | 
 Late Cretaceous (Santonian)  | 
 A dubious plesiosaur.  | |||||
| 
 Valid  | 
 Early Jurassic (Toarcian)  | 
 A Microcleididae plesiosaur. Type species of Microcleidus Watson, 1909.  | |||||
| 
 Valid  | 
 Sir Richard Owen  | 
 Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian)  | 
 A rhomaleosaurid plesiosaur. Type species of Archaeonectrus Novozhilov, 1964.  | ||||
