Populus

Populus is a genus of over 60 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to temperate, subarctic, and montane regions of Eurasia, North America, and North Africa, and to the tropical highlands of East Africa. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood.

Populus

Uncredited · 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
poplarPBDB
Sits inside
SalicaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 344 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 18 of 344 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 36 of 344 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 60 of 344 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 35 of 344 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 154 of 344 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 21 of 344 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 344 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–104 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 7 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 14 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 25 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 17 occurrences54–50 Mya — about 21 occurrences50–46 Mya — about 9 occurrences46–42 Mya — about 5 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 5 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 6 occurrences35–31 Mya — about 12 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 13 occurrences27–23 Mya — about 11 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 14 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 31 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 81 occurrences12–7.7 Mya — about 19 occurrences7.7–3.8 Mya — about 19 occurrences3.8–0 Mya — about 29 occurrences100.5 Mya11.7 ka115 Mya0 Mya

344 occurrences of Populus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

344 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

62 formations

Fort Union — 45.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 44.20°N, 107.88°WFort Union — 46.47°N, 104.01°WFort Union — 46.51°N, 103.88°WFort Union — 46.35°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 46.02°N, 103.76°WFort Union — 46.28°N, 103.81°WFort Union — 46.32°N, 103.88°WFort Union — 46.39°N, 104.00°WFort Union — 41.59°N, 109.25°WFort Union — 46.34°N, 103.99°WFort Union — 46.00°N, 103.00°WFort Union — 46.43°N, 105.24°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.37°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.35°WChloropagus — 39.79°N, 118.94°WWillwood — 44.29°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 107.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.09°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.10°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 41.84°N, 109.35°WGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WGreen River — 41.84°N, 110.70°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.16°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°WWasatch — 41.91°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.83°N, 108.38°WWasatch — 41.82°N, 108.03°WWasatch — 41.91°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 42.33°N, 108.22°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WCoal Valley — 39.52°N, 119.99°WCoal Valley — 39.31°N, 119.65°WAldrich Station — 38.49°N, 118.90°WBopesta — 35.30°N, 118.50°WBuffalo Canyon — 39.20°N, 117.78°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EYemagou — 32.17°N, 79.97°ELatah — 47.64°N, 117.45°WLatah — 47.70°N, 116.75°WLatah — 47.65°N, 117.39°WKoobi Fora — 3.85°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°EValentine — 42.00°N, 100.43°WSan Joaquin — 36.00°N, 120.06°WDouglas Canyon — 47.45°N, 119.87°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.15°N, 9.88°EYousashan — 34.80°N, 90.75°EYousashan — 34.80°N, 91.00°EShizigou — 34.80°N, 91.00°EGuchengzi — 41.84°N, 123.90°E

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The named rock units Populus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 102 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Populus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Populus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,753 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 172 sites for Populus, 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

63 references

Each of the 344 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. 51 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 Populus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itSalicaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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