Ephedra

Ephedra is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs. As of July 2025, 74 species, and two hybrids, are accepted. The species of Ephedra are widespread in many arid regions of the world, ranging across southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern China, and western South America. It is the only extant genus in its family, Ephedraceae, and order, Ephedrales, and one of the three extant genera of the division Gnetophyta together with Gnetum and Welwitschia.

Ephedra

Dcrjsr · CC BY 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
EphedraceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 115 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 115 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 115 occurrencesEocene — about 7 of 115 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 115 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 115 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 115 occurrencesPleistocene — about 76 of 115 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–115 Mya — about 1 occurrence115–111 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–60 Mya — about 2 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 85 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

115 occurrences of Ephedra 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

115 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

Porters Creek — 36.42°N, 89.56°WSierra Madre — 16.68°N, 93.46°WAnfiteatro de Ticó — 48.51°S, 69.24°WBlue Clay — 40.47°N, 17.30°ELópez de Bertodano — 64.32°S, 56.87°WSobral — 64.28°S, 56.70°WCullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°EChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WPiney Point — 37.67°N, 77.14°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.70°WJackson — 36.42°N, 89.56°WCockfield — 36.42°N, 89.56°WClayton — 36.42°N, 89.56°WMalboro Clay — 38.17°N, 77.04°WLisbon — 31.56°N, 87.90°WYixian — 41.25°N, 119.25°E

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The named rock units Ephedra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 97 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ephedra and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ephedra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,001 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 93 sites for Ephedra, 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

29 references

Each of the 115 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. 17 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 content1

Picture of Ephedra

Credit
Dcrjsr
Licence
CC BY 3.0
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 itEphedraceae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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