Prototaxites

Prototaxites is an extinct genus of large macroscopic eukaryote dating from the Late Silurian until the Late Devonian periods. Prototaxites formed large trunk-like structures up to 1 metre (3 ft) wide, reaching 8 metres (26 ft) in height, made up of tiny interwoven tubules around 50 micrometres (0.0020 in) in diameter, making it by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time.

A picture published with the record for Prototaxites. What it shows has not been checked.

G.J. Retallack · 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
PlantaePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 430.6 Mya to 365.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 443.1 Mya to 358.86 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 41 occurrencesSilurian — about 13 of 41 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 28 of 41 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 41 occurrences445–442 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences442–439 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences439–436 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences436–433 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences433–430 Mya — about 3 occurrences430–427 Mya — about 4 occurrences427–424 Mya — about 4 occurrences424–421 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences421–419 Mya — about 1 occurrence419–416 Mya — about 2 occurrences416–413 Mya — about 3 occurrences413–410 Mya — about 6 occurrences410–407 Mya — about 2 occurrences407–404 Mya — about 2 occurrences404–401 Mya — about 2 occurrences401–398 Mya — about 2 occurrences398–395 Mya — about 2 occurrences395–392 Mya — about 1 occurrence392–389 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences389–386 Mya — about 1 occurrence386–383 Mya — about 1 occurrence383–381 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences381–378 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences378–375 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences375–372 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences372–369 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences369–366 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences366–363 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences363–360 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences360–357 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences430.6 Mya365.2 Mya445 Mya357 Mya

41 occurrences of Prototaxites on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

41 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

23 formations

Motol — 50.07°N, 14.33°EMotol — 50.03°N, 14.42°EMotol — 50.00°N, 14.22°EMotol — 50.00°N, 17.78°EMotol — 49.97°N, 14.13°EKopanina — 50.08°N, 14.47°EKopanina — 50.20°N, 12.48°EGrès de Wiheries — 50.38°N, 3.75°EDundee — 56.65°N, 2.77°WHunsrück Slate — 49.83°N, 7.37°EHunsrück Slate — 50.12°N, 7.83°ETrout Valley — 46.10°N, 68.55°WWhitcliffe — 51.00°N, 3.00°WStrathmore — 55.00°N, 4.00°WDryden Flags — 57.34°N, 2.85°WSenni bed — 51.77°N, 2.98°WSenni Beds — 51.95°N, 3.38°WFrankelryggen — 78.00°N, 20.00°ENew Albany Shale — 36.85°N, 83.57°WOhio Black Shale — 41.50°N, 81.70°WKettle Point — 43.22°N, 82.02°WWide Bay — 78.83°N, 18.00°EGrès d'Acoz/Grès de Wepion — 50.92°N, 5.03°ECampbellton — 48.00°N, 66.67°WBois de Bordeaux — 50.60°N, 4.22°EGrès du Bois d'Ausse — 50.59°N, 5.98°EJauf — 29.78°N, 39.87°EWahnbach — 50.94°N, 7.29°EWahnbach Shale — 50.95°N, 7.30°E

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The named rock units Prototaxites 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.

Prototaxites and its relatives

Devonian

Where Prototaxites and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

426 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Prototaxites, 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

26 references

Each of the 41 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. 14 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 Prototaxites

Credit
G.J. Retallack
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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 itPlantae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dawson 1859