Ericaceae

The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.

Ericaceae

JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · 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
heatherPBDB
Sits inside
EricalesPBDB
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 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 488 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 488 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 47 of 488 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 53 of 488 occurrencesEocene — about 55 of 488 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 19 of 488 occurrencesMiocene — about 98 of 488 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 37 of 488 occurrencesPleistocene — about 174 of 488 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 3 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 4 occurrences92–88 Mya — about 3 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 4 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 5 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 5 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 16 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 29 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 22 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 15 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 9 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 12 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 11 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 17 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 7 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 10 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 16 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 24 occurrences15–9.7 Mya — about 43 occurrences9.7–4.9 Mya — about 24 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 209 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka146 Mya0 Mya

488 occurrences of Ericaceae 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

488 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

75 formations

Fort Union — 43.88°N, 108.52°WFort Union — 44.71°N, 106.17°WFort Union — 44.83°N, 106.09°WFort Union — 44.88°N, 106.06°WMonte Chico — 51.59°S, 72.41°WMonte Chico — 51.18°S, 72.29°WSagavanirktok — 69.79°N, 148.64°WSagavanirktok — 69.76°N, 148.79°WSagavanirktok — 69.82°N, 148.68°WTuscaloosa — 33.92°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 34.48°N, 88.09°WTuscaloosa — 33.61°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.12°N, 87.67°WTuscaloosa — 33.17°N, 87.43°WYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°ELa Colonia — 43.01°S, 67.62°WLa Colonia — 42.50°S, 66.50°WLa Colonia — 43.02°S, 67.66°WLa Colonia — 42.97°S, 67.54°WBlack Creek — 35.38°N, 77.99°WBlack Creek — 34.55°N, 80.13°WBlack Creek — 33.85°N, 80.55°WBlack Creek — 33.53°N, 81.83°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.37°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.35°WLefipán — 42.58°S, 69.98°WLefipán — 42.67°S, 69.83°WOkhonchevayamskaya — 60.42°N, 165.92°EMorwell — 38.23°S, 146.62°ECerro Bororó — 43.67°S, 67.75°WOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EOdderup — 54.93°N, 10.27°ECoal Valley — 39.52°N, 119.99°WCoal Valley — 39.31°N, 119.65°WFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°ECalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.70°WBopesta — 35.30°N, 118.50°WEutaw — 32.41°N, 84.83°WEutaw — 32.88°N, 87.59°WMotojuku — 36.25°N, 138.75°EChausuyama — 36.58°N, 138.17°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°W

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The named rock units Ericaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 288 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ericaceae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ericaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,865 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 303 sites for Ericaceae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

124 references

Each of the 488 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. 112 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 Ericaceae

Credit
JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ )
Licence
CC BY-SA 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 itEricales through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jussieu 1789