Alchornea

Alchornea is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1788. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, South Asia, Australia, Latin America, and various oceanic islands. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that Bocquillonia from New Caledonia is nested in Alchornea.Species

Alchornea

Uncredited · 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.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EuphorbiaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 45.9 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 51.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 24 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 24 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 24 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 24 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 24 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–8.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.7–7.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.0–5.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences45.9 Mya1.8 Mya52 Mya0 Mya

24 occurrences of Alchornea on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

24 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

8 formations

San Sebastian — 18.30°N, 66.88°WSan Sebastian — 18.37°N, 66.19°WCucaracha — 9.02°N, 79.63°WOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.33°ECulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°WElandsfontyn — 33.97°S, 18.12°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WLa Boca — 9.07°N, 79.67°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Alchornea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alchornea and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Alchornea and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

215 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Alchornea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

11 references

Each of the 24 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 Alchornea

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Alchornea 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 itEuphorbiaceae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Swartz 1788