Rubiaceae

Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 14,200 species in about 615 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family by number of species. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee; Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine; ornamental cultivars ; and historically some dye plants.

Rubiaceae

JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · 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
coffeePBDB
Sits inside
GentianalesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 202 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 202 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 42 of 202 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 202 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 67 of 202 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 202 occurrencesPleistocene — about 69 of 202 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 18 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 20 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 5 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 23 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 17 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 64 occurrences56 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

202 occurrences of Rubiaceae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

202 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

24 formations

Yaw — 23.25°N, 94.25°EYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°EIguincha — 3.40°S, 79.10°WLower Churia — 27.71°N, 82.53°EKoobi Fora — 3.85°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°ELa Boca — 9.07°N, 79.67°WElandsfontyn — 33.97°S, 18.12°ENgorora — 0.88°N, 35.80°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EOlduvai — 2.96°S, 35.31°EFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°ERajdanda — 23.42°N, 84.13°ELower — 29.15°N, 80.19°EMancora — 5.03°S, 80.16°WNomogen — 43.53°N, 111.73°EChiquimil — 26.83°S, 66.00°WYallourn — 38.22°S, 146.56°ECullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WArung Khola — 27.72°N, 83.47°EBinai Khola — 27.56°N, 83.85°EWulonggu — 47.52°N, 87.08°EBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°ENeyveli — 11.54°N, 79.48°ELaki — 23.53°N, 68.95°ESylhet — 25.21°N, 91.77°E

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The named rock units Rubiaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 122 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rubiaceae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Rubiaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,647 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 137 sites for Rubiaceae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

47 references

Each of the 202 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. 35 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 Rubiaceae

Credit
JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itGentianales through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jussieu 1789