Ilex

Ilex or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. Ilex has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The type species is Ilex aquifolium, the common European holly used in Christmas decorations and cards.

Ilex

Jürgen Howaldt · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · 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
hollyPBDB
Sits inside
AquifoliaceaePBDB
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 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 190 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 190 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 190 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 8 of 190 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 190 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 88 of 190 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 43 of 190 occurrencesPleistocene — about 31 of 190 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–92 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 3 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 16 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 33 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 15 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 34 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

190 occurrences of Ilex on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

190 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

28 formations

Gatun — 9.27°N, 79.87°WGatun — 9.13°N, 79.95°WCulebra — 9.03°N, 79.63°WItahana — 36.25°N, 138.50°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°ECalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.70°WOkinoyama — 34.00°N, 131.00°ESanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°ENaturita — 39.11°N, 109.14°WNaturita — 39.00°N, 109.00°WDenver — 39.75°N, 105.22°WTuscaloosa — 33.92°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.17°N, 87.43°WOhoka — 36.42°N, 138.00°ESeto Porcelain Clay — 35.00°N, 137.00°EYadagawa — 35.00°N, 136.00°EValentine — 42.00°N, 100.43°WHaughton — 75.41°N, 89.43°WCucaracha — 9.02°N, 79.63°WKameyama — 34.80°N, 136.42°EMilk River — 49.08°N, 113.52°WBeaverdam — 42.24°N, 114.08°WTamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°EXiananshan — 29.15°N, 121.23°E

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The named rock units Ilex has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 139 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ilex and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ilex and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,398 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 108 sites for Ilex, and this reads all 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

49 references

Each of the 190 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. 37 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 Ilex

Credit
Jürgen Howaldt
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0 de
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Sachatamia ilex · KU:KUH:221613

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 itAquifoliaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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