Alnus

Searched as Alnus vera. The Paleobiology Database treats Alnus as the accepted name.

Alders are trees of the genus Alnus in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America, as well as the northern and southern Andes.

Alnus

AnRo0002 · CC0 · 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
Also called
alderPBDB
Sits inside
BetulaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 18 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 20 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 20 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 19 of 20 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56 Mya37.71 Mya66.6 Mya33.3 Mya

20 occurrences of Alnus on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

20 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

5 formations

Lisbon — 31.56°N, 87.90°WLisbon — 31.52°N, 84.11°WBashi — 31.47°N, 85.64°WBashi — 31.52°N, 84.11°WJackson — 36.42°N, 89.56°WCook Mountain — 36.42°N, 89.56°WSan Lorenzo — 37.18°N, 122.14°W

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The named rock units Alnus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alnus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Alnus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,972 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 308 sites for Alnus, and this reads 240 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

3 references

Each of the 20 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 Alnus

Credit
AnRo0002
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alnus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itBetulaceae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1754