Rauvolfia

Rauvolfia is a genus of evergreen trees and shrubs, commonly known as devil peppers, in the family Apocynaceae. The genus is named to honor Leonhard Rauwolf. The genus can mainly be found in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and various oceanic islands.

Rauvolfia

Forest & Kim Starr · 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
ApocynaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At most 21 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.04 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.5–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.4–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.5 Mya2.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Rauvolfia on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

2 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

2 formations

Elandsfontyn — 33.97°S, 18.12°ENgorora — 0.88°N, 35.80°E

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The named rock units Rauvolfia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Rauvolfia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Rauvolfia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

45 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Rauvolfia, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Rauvolfia

Credit
Forest & Kim Starr
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rauvolfia was found in Sketchfab.

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 itApocynaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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