Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as Euphorbia paralias, are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as Hevea brasiliensis. Some, such as Euphorbia canariensis, are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution. This family has a cosmopolitan global distribution. The greatest diversity of species is in the tropics; however, the Euphorbiaceae also have many species in nontropical areas of all continents except Antarctica.

Euphorbiaceae

Forest & Kim Starr · 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
Also called
spurgePBDB
Sits inside
MalpighialesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 34 of 972 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 59 of 972 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 972 occurrencesEocene — about 473 of 972 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 27 of 972 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 133 of 972 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 24 of 972 occurrencesPleistocene — about 196 of 972 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–111 Mya — about 4 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 10 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 11 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 14 occurrences99–95 Mya — about 19 occurrences95–91 Mya — about 16 occurrences91–87 Mya — about 4 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 4 occurrences78–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 24 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 34 occurrences50–45 Mya — about 101 occurrences45–41 Mya — about 138 occurrences41–37 Mya — about 127 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 54 occurrences33–29 Mya — about 7 occurrences29–25 Mya — about 12 occurrences25–21 Mya — about 21 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 28 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 51 occurrences12–8.3 Mya — about 27 occurrences8.3–4.1 Mya — about 21 occurrences4.1–0 Mya — about 227 occurrences100.5 Mya11.7 ka124 Mya0 Mya

972 occurrences of Euphorbiaceae 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

972 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

72 formations

Yaw — 23.25°N, 94.25°EYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°EBima — 12.08°N, 13.14°EAbu Roash — 29.00°N, 29.00°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.45°N, 0.13°WLondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.13°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°ESan Sebastian — 18.30°N, 66.88°WSan Sebastian — 18.37°N, 66.19°WFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°EBagshot — 50.70°N, 2.03°WNanjemoy — 38.41°N, 76.99°WNanjemoy — 37.77°N, 77.42°WNanjemoy — 38.32°N, 77.13°WNanjemoy — 37.72°N, 77.23°WNanjemoy — 37.77°N, 77.28°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WSagavanirktok — 69.79°N, 148.63°WSagavanirktok — 69.76°N, 148.79°WWasatch — 41.91°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.72°N, 107.80°WWasatch — 41.82°N, 108.03°WWasatch — 41.91°N, 108.00°WKerrikerri — 12.08°N, 13.14°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.03°N, 79.11°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.86°N, 80.69°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.11°N, 80.61°ENgorora — 0.88°N, 35.80°ECerrejón — 11.13°N, 72.56°WEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EBahariya — 29.00°N, 29.00°EBlack Creek — 34.55°N, 80.13°WBlack Creek — 33.85°N, 80.55°WBlack Creek — 33.53°N, 81.83°WBlack Creek — 33.71°N, 81.78°WLower Churia — 27.71°N, 82.53°ELower — 29.14°N, 80.19°EHuitrera — 42.54°S, 70.00°WKoobi Fora — 3.85°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WCulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°W

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The named rock units Euphorbiaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 48 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 674 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Euphorbiaceae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Euphorbiaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,816 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 398 sites for Euphorbiaceae, 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

104 references

Each of the 972 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. 92 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 Euphorbiaceae

Credit
Forest & Kim Starr
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMalpighiales through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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