Pisonia

Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso (1611–1678). Certain species in this genus are known as catchbirdtrees, birdcatcher trees or birdlime trees because they catch birds. The sticky seeds are postulated to be an adaptation of some island species that ensures the dispersal of seeds between islands by attaching them to birds, and also allows the enriching of coralline sands. These island species include P. brunoniana of Australasia and Polynesia and P. umbellifera, which is widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

Pisonia

Kahuroa · 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
birdcatcher treePBDB
Sits inside
NyctaginaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 11 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences10–7.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences5.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences33.9 Mya5.333 Mya67 Mya1 Mya

11 occurrences of Pisonia 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

11 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

2 formations

Pirabas — 1.21°S, 47.16°WAckerman — 34.66°N, 89.10°W

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The named rock units Pisonia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pisonia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pisonia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

177 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Pisonia, 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

10 references

Each of the 11 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. 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 Pisonia

Credit
Kahuroa
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
dgred
Licence
CC Attribution
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 itNyctaginaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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