Lauraceae

Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide. They are dicotyledons, and occur mainly in warm temperate and tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America. Many are aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs, but some, such as Sassafras, are deciduous, or include both deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, especially in tropical and temperate climates. The genus Cassytha is unique in the Lauraceae in that its members are parasitic vines. Many species within the laurel family are highly toxic; however, some, such as the avocado, are edible and widely consumed. Members of the laurel family have played a significant role in the spice trade, particularly genera like Cinnamomum, which produce aromatic oils used extensively in cooking, perfumery, and traditional medicine.

Lauraceae

Francisco Manuel Blanco (O.S.A.) · 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
Also called
laurelPBDB
Sits inside
LauralesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 113 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 1250 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 16 of 1250 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 173 of 1250 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 232 of 1250 occurrencesEocene — about 396 of 1250 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 80 of 1250 occurrencesMiocene — about 281 of 1250 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 27 of 1250 occurrencesPleistocene — about 45 of 1250 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences131–127 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 1 occurrence117–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 3 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 5 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 11 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 11 occurrences92–88 Mya — about 6 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 11 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 16 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 16 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 69 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 68 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 71 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 193 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 124 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 80 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 69 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 55 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 40 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 34 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 53 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 72 occurrences15–9.7 Mya — about 94 occurrences9.7–4.9 Mya — about 73 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 70 occurrences113.2 Mya129 ka146 Mya0 Mya

1,250 occurrences of Lauraceae 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

1,250 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

156 formations

Fort Union — 45.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 109.03°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 44.20°N, 107.88°WFort Union — 44.27°N, 107.97°WFort Union — 42.00°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 42.28°N, 108.11°WFort Union — 41.59°N, 109.25°WFort Union — 41.16°N, 108.92°WFort Union — 41.46°N, 108.71°WFort Union — 41.56°N, 108.58°WFort Union — 41.51°N, 108.65°WFort Union — 41.33°N, 109.24°WFort Union — 41.14°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.14°N, 109.06°WFort Union — 47.10°N, 104.72°WFort Union — 43.87°N, 108.17°WFort Union — 46.42°N, 105.83°WFort Union — 46.42°N, 105.73°WFort Union — 46.22°N, 108.40°WFort Union — 46.22°N, 108.32°WFort Union — 43.88°N, 108.52°WFort Union — 45.30°N, 108.92°WFort Union — 44.92°N, 107.17°WFort Union — 44.90°N, 107.03°WFort Union — 46.10°N, 109.95°WFort Union — 48.40°N, 109.27°WFort Union — 46.53°N, 108.02°WFort Union — 44.48°N, 105.48°WFort Union — 43.03°N, 106.98°WFort Union — 40.59°N, 107.69°WFort Union — 45.09°N, 106.09°WFort Union — 44.25°N, 105.07°WFort Union — 43.87°N, 105.17°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 104.70°WFort Union — 46.43°N, 105.24°WFort Union — 44.88°N, 108.87°WFort Union — 41.71°N, 108.62°WLondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.83°N, 1.25°ELondon Clay — 51.78°N, 2.27°WLondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.13°ELondon Clay — 50.63°N, 3.47°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EHell Creek — 46.30°N, 103.88°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 46.02°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 46.13°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 45.29°N, 103.27°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.96°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 45.65°N, 103.62°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WItahana — 36.25°N, 138.50°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EItahana — 36.50°N, 139.00°EItahana — 36.32°N, 138.85°ESepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 109.00°WHuitrera — 41.04°S, 71.20°WHuitrera — 42.50°S, 70.00°WOkinoyama — 34.00°N, 131.00°EPidinga — 31.24°S, 121.63°EFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°ELigorio Márquez — 36.77°S, 71.83°WXiaolongtan — 23.81°N, 103.20°EXiaolongtan — 25.42°N, 102.85°ETuscaloosa — 33.92°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.61°N, 87.74°WTuscaloosa — 33.12°N, 87.67°WTuscaloosa — 33.17°N, 87.43°WYagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°EEagle — 44.98°N, 108.87°WCerrejón — 11.13°N, 72.57°WCerrejón — 11.09°N, 72.69°WWillwood — 44.28°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 107.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.33°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.18°WWillwood — 44.40°N, 108.84°WRaton — 36.95°N, 104.33°WRaton — 36.90°N, 104.43°WRaton — 37.17°N, 104.50°WRaton — 37.00°N, 104.48°WRaton — 37.15°N, 104.73°WBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°EChangsheling — 23.75°N, 106.92°ELance — 43.08°N, 104.63°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.61°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 41.84°N, 109.35°WGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WNanlin — 25.12°N, 98.83°ELatah — 47.75°N, 117.55°WLatah — 47.64°N, 117.45°WLatah — 47.65°N, 117.21°WLatah — 47.56°N, 117.22°WMangbang — 24.69°N, 98.63°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lauraceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 132 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 378 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lauraceae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Lauraceae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,630 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 552 sites for Lauraceae, and this reads 240 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

189 references

Each of the 1,250 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. 177 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 Lauraceae

Credit
Francisco Manuel Blanco (O.S.A.)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lauraceae was found in Sketchfab.

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 itLaurales through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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