Polystichum

Polystichum is a genus of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016. The genus has about 500 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution. The highest diversity is in eastern Asia, with about 208 species in China alone; the region from Mexico to Brazil has at least 100 additional species; Africa, North America, and Europe have much lower diversity. Polystichum species are terrestrial or rock-dwelling ferns of warm-temperate and montane-tropical regions. They are often found in disturbed habitats such as road cuts, talus slopes, and stream banks.

Polystichum

Kurt Stüber [1] · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
DryopteridoideaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At most 5.4 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPliocene — about 3 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 8 of 11 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.8 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Polystichum on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

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.

Polystichum and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Polystichum and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Polystichum, 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

3 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 Polystichum

Credit
Kurt Stüber [1]
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
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 itDryopteridoideae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Roth 1799