Pterocarya

Pterocarya, often called wingnuts in English, are trees in the walnut family Juglandaceae. They are native to Asia and the extreme southeast of Europe, from the Caucasus Mountains east to Japan. The botanic name is from Ancient Greek πτερόν (pteron) "wing" + κάρυον (karyon) "nut". The genus is of particular scientific interest as a classic relict lineage, with a modern distribution disjunct between East Asia and the Caucasus–West Asian region, while its fossil record shows it was once widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere. In Western Europe, the genus was present on Doggerland until shortly before it was flooded a few thousand years ago. Many fossils are known from the New World and the genus survived in the New world till the Pliocene. Most species of wingnuts are large, fast-growing trees, often associated with riverbanks, floodplains, and moist temperate forests. They are distinguished by pinnate leaves, monoecious flowers, and fruit with lateral wings that aid wind and water dispersal. Several species, such as Pterocarya stenoptera and Pterocarya fraxinifolia, are widely cultivated as ornamental or shade trees due to their graceful form and tolerance of wet soils.

Pterocarya

Uncredited · 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
Also called
wingnutPBDB
Sits inside
JuglandaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 56 million years on record.

The record covers at least 57.5 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 188 occurrencesPaleocene — about 15 of 188 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 56 of 188 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 20 of 188 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 69 of 188 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 17 of 188 occurrencesPleistocene — about 11 of 188 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 5 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 4 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 4 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 5 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 5 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 10 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 10 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 8 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 6 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 12 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 18 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 9 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 13 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences57.5 Mya774 ka67 Mya0 Mya

188 occurrences of Pterocarya 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

188 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

33 formations

Sagavanirktok — 69.79°N, 148.64°WSagavanirktok — 69.76°N, 148.79°WSagavanirktok — 69.95°N, 144.55°WSagavanirktok — 69.38°N, 148.71°WSagavanirktok — 69.56°N, 147.53°WCanning — 69.79°N, 145.32°WCanning — 69.86°N, 145.27°WCanning — 69.92°N, 143.38°WFort Union — 45.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 43.90°N, 105.20°WFort Union — 44.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 45.15°N, 105.68°WFort Union — 41.28°N, 109.19°WItahana — 36.25°N, 138.50°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EItahana — 36.50°N, 139.00°EGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WSanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EValentine — 42.00°N, 100.43°WOkinoyama — 34.00°N, 131.00°EJohn Day — 44.57°N, 119.63°WGolden Valley — 46.92°N, 102.58°WMotojuku — 36.25°N, 138.75°EOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°EOhoka — 36.42°N, 138.00°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EHaughton — 75.41°N, 89.43°WOdderup — 54.93°N, 10.27°EPyramid — 39.90°N, 119.55°WBeaverdam — 42.24°N, 114.08°WYagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°EKovachinskaya — 60.42°N, 165.92°ECoalmont — 40.73°N, 106.42°WTamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WBlue Clay — 40.47°N, 17.30°EYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°E

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The named rock units Pterocarya has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 107 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterocarya and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pterocarya and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,042 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 110 sites for Pterocarya, 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

48 references

Each of the 188 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. 36 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 content2

Picture of Pterocarya

Credit
nobody named on the record
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 itJuglandaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kunth 1824