Psaronius

Psaronius is an extinct genus marattialean tree fern which grew to 10m in height, and is associated with leaves of the organ genus Pecopteris and other extinct tree ferns. Originally, Psaronius was a name for the petrified stems, but today the genus is used for the entire tree fern. Psaronius tree fern fossils are found from the Carboniferous through the Permian.

Psaronius

Verisimilus · CC BY 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
MarattiaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 52 million years on record.

The record covers at least 316.9 Mya to 264.28 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 330.3 Mya to 254.14 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 13 of 16 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 3 of 16 occurrencesPermian332–329 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences329–327 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences327–324 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences324–321 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences321–319 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences319–316 Mya — about 2 occurrences313–311 Mya — about 3 occurrences311–308 Mya — about 4 occurrences308–305 Mya — about 3 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences298–295 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences295–292 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–261 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences261–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences316.9 Mya264.28 Mya332 Mya253 Mya

16 occurrences of Psaronius on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

16 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

3 formations

Carbondale — 38.18°N, 87.33°WTaiyuan — 40.00°N, 118.00°ENocona — 33.68°N, 98.70°W

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The named rock units Psaronius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Psaronius and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Psaronius and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

119 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Psaronius, 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

5 references

Each of the 16 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 Psaronius

Credit
Verisimilus
Licence
CC BY 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 was 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 itMarattiaceae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cotta 1832