Picea sitchensis

Picea sitchensis, the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to just over 100 meters (330 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth-largest conifer in the world, and the third-tallest tree species. The Sitka spruce is one of only three species documented to exceed 100 m (330 ft) in height. Its name is derived from the community of Sitka in southeast Alaska, where it is prevalent. Its range hugs the western coast of Canada and the US and continues south into northern California.

Picea sitchensis

Graaf van Vlaanderen · CC BY-SA 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
PiceaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At most 2 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 7.246 Mya and 5.333 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence7.3–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.75 Mya4.83 Mya

1 occurrence of Picea sitchensis on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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 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

Imuruk Volcanics — 65.88°N, 163.13°W

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

Picea sitchensis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Picea sitchensis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

47 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Picea sitchensis, 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 1 occurrence 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 Picea sitchensis

Credit
Graaf van Vlaanderen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Picea sitchensis 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 itPicea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bongard 1832)