Asplenium

Asplenium is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider Hymenasplenium separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different chromosome count, and structural differences in the rhizomes. The type species for the genus is Asplenium marinum.

Asplenium

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
AspleniaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 227 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 241.464 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 62 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 6 of 62 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 13 of 62 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 13 of 62 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 62 occurrencesEocene — about 13 of 62 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 62 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 62 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 62 occurrencesPleistocene — about 12 of 62 occurrences246–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–230 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences230–222 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–156 Mya — about 1 occurrence156–148 Mya — about 4 occurrences148–140 Mya — about 1 occurrence140–131 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences131–123 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences123–115 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences115–107 Mya — about 6 occurrences107–99 Mya — about 7 occurrences99–90 Mya — about 3 occurrences90–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–49 Mya — about 4 occurrences49–41 Mya — about 6 occurrences41–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences16–8.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.2–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences227.3 Mya11.7 ka246 Mya0 Mya

62 occurrences of Asplenium on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

62 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

17 formations

Krivorechenskaya — 64.48°N, 168.92°ESepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 109.00°WEagle — 44.98°N, 108.87°WGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.10°WCheyenne Sandstone — 37.45°N, 99.08°WCretaceous — 43.43°N, 103.67°WCretaceous — 43.42°N, 103.47°WGolden Valley — 46.98°N, 102.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 109.00°WOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°EMulin — 46.60°N, 131.00°EJianxing — 46.00°N, 128.00°EChengzhi — 45.90°N, 133.00°EKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.24°WLaramie — 44.00°N, 110.00°W"Sehuense" — 47.94°S, 66.87°WAckerman — 34.66°N, 89.10°WTuscaloosa — 33.61°N, 87.74°W

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The named rock units Asplenium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Asplenium and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

841 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Asplenium, 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

22 references

Each of the 62 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. 10 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Asplenium

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itAspleniaceae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1753)