Dryopteris

Dryopteris, commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns, or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). There are about 300-400 species in the genus. The species are distributed in Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific islands, with the highest diversity in eastern Asia. It is placed in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). Many of the species have stout, slowly creeping rootstocks that form a crown, with a vase-like ring of fronds. The sori are round, with a peltate indusium. The stipes have prominent scales.

Dryopteris

Carl Axel Magnus Lindman · 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
DryopteridoideaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 41 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 4 of 41 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 41 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 8 of 41 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 8 of 41 occurrencesEocene — about 9 of 41 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 41 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 41 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 41 occurrences165–159 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences159–154 Mya — about 1 occurrence154–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–143 Mya — about 1 occurrence104–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–93 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences93–88 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences88–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–60 Mya — about 5 occurrences60–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences55–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–33 Mya — about 6 occurrences33–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–22 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.5–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences143.1 Mya11.7 ka165 Mya0 Mya

41 occurrences of Dryopteris on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

41 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

16 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WFort Union — 44.15°N, 108.87°WFort Union — 47.13°N, 107.52°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 104.70°WFort Union — 43.93°N, 108.65°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 109.00°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WProtection — 49.00°N, 124.00°WFrontier — 41.79°N, 110.54°WFrontier — 41.56°N, 110.57°WLa Postrera — 38.17°S, 58.77°WRajmahal — 25.23°N, 87.49°EJingouling — 42.50°N, 129.00°EMulin — 45.90°N, 133.00°EDenver — 39.75°N, 105.22°WRaton — 37.15°N, 104.73°WDawson Arkose — 38.93°N, 104.60°WTullock — 46.58°N, 105.88°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WHalf Three Point — 62.15°S, 58.73°WZamek — 62.19°S, 58.45°W

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The named rock units Dryopteris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dryopteris and its relatives

Eocene

Where Dryopteris and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

512 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Dryopteris, 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

17 references

Each of the 41 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. 5 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 Dryopteris

Credit
Carl Axel Magnus Lindman
Licence
Public Domain
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 itDryopteridoideae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Adanson 1763