Styrax

Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America. The resin obtained from the tree is called benzoin or storax, often used as a vanilla-like component in perfumery.

Styrax

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
storaxPBDB
Sits inside
StyracaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 59 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 59 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 5 of 59 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 59 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 41 of 59 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 59 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 59 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 6 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 11 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48.07 Mya3.6 Mya67 Mya0 Mya

59 occurrences of Styrax 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

59 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

14 formations

Yadagawa — 35.00°N, 136.00°EItahana — 36.25°N, 138.50°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EYagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°EMotojuku — 36.25°N, 138.75°EChausuyama — 36.58°N, 138.17°ESeto Porcelain Clay — 35.00°N, 137.00°EGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WHeadon Beds — 50.75°N, 1.60°WMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°WCerro Pelado — 10.00°N, 71.00°WMorne l'Enfer — 10.50°N, 61.25°WBagshot — 50.72°N, 2.00°WSanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°E

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The named rock units Styrax has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Styrax and its relatives

Miocene

Where Styrax and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

621 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Styrax, 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

24 references

Each of the 59 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. 12 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 Styrax

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
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 itStyracaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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