Cinnamomum

Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark and are best known as the source of the spice cinnamon. The genus contains about 227 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania/Australasia. The genus includes a great number of economically important trees used to produce the spice cinnamon. The oldest fossils are known from the Cretaceous, but the group reached a peak of diversity during the Eocene.

Cinnamomum

Photo by David J. Stang · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
cinnamonPBDB
Sits inside
LauraceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 179 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 37 of 179 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 19 of 179 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 52 of 179 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 179 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 54 of 179 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 179 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 179 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 1 occurrence92–89 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 5 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 9 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 7 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 16 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 9 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 9 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 9 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 9 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 7 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 15 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 14 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka103 Mya0 Mya

179 occurrences of Cinnamomum on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

179 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

48 formations

Fort Union — 44.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.59°N, 109.25°WFort Union — 41.16°N, 108.92°WFort Union — 41.46°N, 108.71°WFort Union — 41.56°N, 108.58°WFort Union — 46.22°N, 108.40°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.28°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.96°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.02°WLondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.83°N, 1.25°ELondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.13°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EOkinoyama — 34.00°N, 131.00°EEagle — 44.98°N, 108.87°WItahana — 36.25°N, 138.50°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EItahana — 36.50°N, 139.00°EFrontier — 41.60°N, 110.55°WFrontier — 41.79°N, 110.54°WLigorio Márquez — 36.77°S, 71.83°WChangsheling — 23.75°N, 106.92°EYagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°EBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°EXiaolongtan — 23.81°N, 103.20°EXiaolongtan — 25.42°N, 102.85°ETuscaloosa — 33.92°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.61°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.17°N, 87.43°WSeto Porcelain Clay — 35.00°N, 137.00°EBlack Creek — 34.55°N, 80.13°WBlack Creek — 33.85°N, 80.55°WEutaw — 32.41°N, 84.83°WNanlin — 25.12°N, 98.83°EMangbang — 24.69°N, 98.63°ESayama — 35.78°N, 139.38°EChausuyama — 36.58°N, 138.17°EOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°ETokoname — 34.67°N, 136.92°EIone — 39.31°N, 120.96°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cinnamomum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 51 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cinnamomum and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cinnamomum and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,373 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 120 sites for Cinnamomum, 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

44 references

Each of the 179 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. 32 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 Cinnamomum

Credit
Photo by David J. Stang
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itLauraceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schaeffer 1760