Ziziphus

Ziziphus is a genus of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It includes 68 species native to tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and South America. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and often aromatic. The flowers are small, inconspicuous yellow-green. The fruit is an edible drupe, often very sweet and sugary, reminiscent of a date in texture and flavour.

Ziziphus

Adolphus Ypey · 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
Sits inside
RhamnaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 11 of 21 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 21 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 5 of 21 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 21 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 21 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences66 Mya2.58 Mya74 Mya0 Mya

21 occurrences of Ziziphus on record. 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

21 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

6 formations

Hell Creek — 46.32°N, 103.86°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 45.65°N, 103.62°WSan José — 26.71°S, 66.02°WSan José — 26.68°S, 65.83°WNgorora — 0.88°N, 35.80°ERajdanda — 23.42°N, 84.13°EHaridwar — 30.04°N, 78.15°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°E

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The named rock units Ziziphus 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.

Found in the same rock

453 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Ziziphus, 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

7 references

Each of the 21 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 content1

Picture of Ziziphus

Credit
Adolphus Ypey
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ziziphus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itRhamnaceae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1758