Physalis infinemundi

Physalis infinemundi is an extinct species of the genus Physalis known from two fossilised fruit found in the Laguna del Hunco Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina dating to the Eocene, around 52 million years old. The species name derives from "in fine mundi" means "at the end of the earth" referring to the fact that it grew in the far south. The fossil was considerably older than the diversification ages predicted by previous molecular clock studies of Solanaceae, which estimated that the family as a whole originated 30 million years ago. The fossils are very similar to modern Physalis species, with 5 distinct lobes. The environment at the time of deposition is thought to have been a rainforest.

Physalis infinemundi

Peter Wilf . Accompanies paper http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6320/71 · CC BY 4.0 · 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
PhysalisPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEocene56–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56.5 Mya47.6 Mya

2 occurrences of Physalis infinemundi on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

2 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

1 formation

Huitrera — 42.50°S, 70.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Physalis infinemundi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Physalis infinemundi and its relatives

Eocene

Where Physalis infinemundi and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Physalis infinemundi, 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

1 reference

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Physalis infinemundi

Credit
Peter Wilf . Accompanies paper http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6320/71
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Physalis infinemundi 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 itPhysalis through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wilf et al. 2017