Cercis

Cercis is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known for the Judas tree in Europe or as redbuds in the USA. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-red flowers borne in the early spring on bare leafless shoots, on both branches and trunk ("cauliflory"). The genus contains ten species, native to warm temperate regions of North America, southern Europe, western and central Asia, and China.

Cercis

Sballal · 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
Also called
redbudPBDB
Sits inside
CercidoideaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 129 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 32 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 32 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 32 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 32 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 32 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 32 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences33.9 Mya774 ka57 Mya0 Mya

32 occurrences of Cercis on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

32 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

12 formations

John Day — 44.64°N, 120.30°WJohn Day — 45.00°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.95°N, 120.33°WJohn Day — 44.14°N, 120.27°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.16°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WIguincha — 3.40°S, 79.10°WIguincha — 3.33°S, 79.06°WMiddle — 24.21°N, 117.89°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EChloropagus — 39.79°N, 118.94°WShulan — 44.33°N, 127.00°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°ENanlin — 25.12°N, 98.83°ELatah — 47.75°N, 117.55°WSayama — 35.78°N, 139.38°E

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The named rock units Cercis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cercis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cercis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

440 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Cercis, 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

13 references

Each of the 32 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. 1 further reference is 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 Cercis

Credit
Sballal
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itCercidoideae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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