Fossil taxa described in 2015

extinct predatory cockroach species

Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae is an extinct salamander species found in Miocene Dominican amber from the Dominican Republic. It is so far the only salamander species known to have existed in the Caribbean.

Dagasuchus is an extinct genus of pseudosuchian archosaur from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, represented by the type species Dagasuchus santacruzensis. D. santacruzensis was named in 2015 on the basis of specimen UFRGS-PV-1244-T and UFRGS-PV-1245-T, a partial hip (one ilium and a pair of ischia) found in an exposure of the Santa Maria Formation in the Paraná Basin, near the city of Santa Cruz do Sul. Dagasuchus is an early member of a large evolutionary group called Loricata, which originated in the Triassic and includes modern crocodylians and their ancestors. Feat

Archaeodobenus is an extinct genus of pinniped that lived during the Late Miocene of what is now Japan. It belonged to the Odobenidae family, which is today only represented by the walrus, but was much more diverse in the past, containing at least 16 genera.

Asprosaurus () is an extinct genus of anguimorph lizard from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of South Korea. The genus contains a single species, A. bibongriensis, which is the first Mesozoic lizard to have been discovered on the Korean peninsula. Initially classified as a possible monstersaurian, Asprosaurus has been subsequently suggested to be a probable mosasauroid, an extinct group of marine lizards during the Late Cretaceous.

Orientognathus is a genus of rhamphorhynchid pterosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China. It is known from a single specimen which includes most of the skeleton and skull, and was first named and described in 2015 by Lü Junchang et al.. The taxon was found in the Tuchengzi Formation of China, which is slightly younger than the Tiaojishan Formation that most other Middle Jurassic pterosaurs from the region have been found in. The description study produced a phylogenetic analysis, which determined that Orientognathus was a basal member of Rhamphorhynchidae, possibly within Rhamphorhynchinae.

Leyvachelys is an extinct genus of turtles in the family Sandownidae from the Early Cretaceous (Late Aptian to Early Albian) of the present-day Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Eastern Ranges, Colombian Andes. The genus is known only from its type species, Leyvachelys cipadi, described in 2015 by Colombian paleontologist Edwin Cadena. Fossils of Leyvachelys have been found in the fossiliferous Paja Formation, close to Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, after which the genus is named. The holotype specimen is the oldest and most complete sandownid turtle found to date.

Erpetonyx is an extinct genus of bolosaurian parareptile from the Gzhelian stage of the Carboniferous period, with a single known species: Erpetonyx arsenaultorum. It is known from a single articulated and mostly complete specimen from Prince Edward Island in Canada. Phylogenetics has predicted that parareptiles first evolved in the Carboniferous, parallel to eureptiles ("true reptiles"). However, Hylonomus, the oldest eureptile known from fossil evidence, lived millions of years before parareptiles appeared in the fossil record. The discovery of Erpetonyx helped to shorten this gap between pa

species of mammal

Australohyaena is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammal, belonging to the order Sparassodonta. It lived during the Late Oligocene, and its fossilized remains were discovered in Argentina.

Yawunik is an extinct genus of Cambrian megacheiran ("Great appendage" arthropod) known from the Burgess Shale in Canada ( Marble Canyon locality). The type species has been named Yawunik kootenayi after the Kootenay, both a geographic area (and National Park, where the fossil was found) and North American First Nation, also known as the Ktunaxa. The genus name is derived from , the name of a primordial sea monster in Ktunaxa mythology. The fossil dates back to 508 million years ago.

Lotheridium is an extinct genus of deltatheroidan mammals that lived in what is now Asia during the Late Cretaceous, about 72–66 million years ago. The genus contains a single species, Lotheridium mengi, named in 2015 after paleontologist Jin Meng. It is known from a single fossil specimen—a skull with associated lower jaws—found in the Qiupa Formation of Henan Province, China and housed in the collections of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History. The skull measures in length, suggesting Lotheridium was large compared to most other deltatheroidans. Though the preserved skull is almost complet

Shiriyanetta hasegawai is an extinct species of seaduck from the Pleistocene of Japan. It was flightless, similar to the also extinct Chendytes from the opposite side of the Pacific.

Ypresiomyrma is an extinct genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae that was described in 2006. There are four species described; one species is from the Isle of Fur in Denmark, two are from the McAbee Fossil Beds in British Columbia, Canada, and the fourth from the Bol’shaya Svetlovodnaya fossil site in Russia. The queens of this genus are large, the mandibles are elongated and the eyes are well developed; a stinger is also present. The behaviour of these ants would have been similar to that of extant Myrmeciinae ants, such as solitary foraging for arthropod prey and never leaving pheromone

Horshamosaurus is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous of what is now England. The type species is Horshamosaurus rudgwickensis.

Ekembo is an early ape (hominoid) genus found in 17- to 20-million-year-old sediments from the Miocene epoch. Specimens have been found at sites around the ancient Kisingiri volcano in Kenya on Rusinga Island and Mfangano Island in Lake Victoria. The name Ekembo is Suba for "ape" or "monkey".

Janusiscus schultzei is an extinct gnathostome vertebrate dating from the Early Devonian period in Siberia, approximately 415 million years ago. It may be the sister group of the last common ancestor of Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish) or Osteichthyes (bony fish). This makes J. schultzei a sister species to all living jawed vertebrates. The species name is in honor of Hans-Peter Schultze; the genus named after Janus, the Roman god of duality.

Gnatusuchus is an extinct genus of caiman represented by the type species Gnatusuchus pebasensis from the Middle Miocene Pebas Formation of Peru. Gnatusuchus lived about 13 million years ago (Ma) in a large wetland system called the Pebas mega-wetlands that covered over one million square kilometers of what is now the Amazon Basin (the modern basin had not yet developed at that time and instead of draining from west to east into the Atlantic Ocean, river systems drained northward through the wetlands and into the Caribbean Sea).