Cinnamomum tamala

Cinnamomum tamala, Indian bay leaf, also known as tejpat, tejapatta, Malabar leaf, Indian bark, Indian cassia, or malabathrum, is a tree in the family Lauraceae that is native to northern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and southwestern China. It can grow up to 20 m (66 ft) tall. Its leaves have a clove-like aroma with a hint of peppery taste; they are used for culinary and medicinal purposes. It is thought to have been one of the major sources of the medicinal plant leaves known in classic and medieval times as malabathrum.

Cinnamomum tamala

Sonja Pauen · Public Domain · 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
CinnamomumPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At most 24 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.04 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 2 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23.5 Mya0 Mya

2 occurrences of Cinnamomum tamala on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

2 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

1 formation

Middle — 26.88°N, 88.32°E

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The named rock units Cinnamomum tamala has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cinnamomum tamala and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cinnamomum tamala and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

73 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Cinnamomum tamala, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 Cinnamomum tamala

Credit
Sonja Pauen
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCinnamomum through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Nees and Ebermaier 1831