Aculea

Aculea is an extinct genus of ferns known from the Cretaceous period, primarily identified through fossil records in places like Antarctica, Australia, and Patagonia. Additional mid-Cretaceous fern diversity studies in Patagonia have further documented the stratigraphic context of fern genera, including Aculea, within Cretaceous South American plant assemblages. It includes species such as Aculea acicularis, which formed upright thickets with fronds arising from subterranean rhizomes, often in environments dominated by araucarian trees and other large plants and floodbasins. Its fossils have also been recovered from floodbasin settings, notably from the Eumeralla Formation.

A picture published with the record for Aculea. What it shows has not been checked.

John G. Douglas · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

Time the record covers

At most 50 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 143.1 Mya and 93.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 4 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 4 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous144–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144 Mya93 Mya

4 occurrences of Aculea on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Neptune Glacier — 72.08°S, 68.50°WKachaike — 48.85°S, 72.15°W

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The named rock units Aculea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aculea and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Aculea and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

13 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Aculea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aculea

Credit
John G. Douglas
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aculea was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Douglas 1973