Aldrovanda

Aldrovanda is a genus of carnivorous plants encompassing one extant species: the waterwheel plant. It also covers numerous extinct taxa. The genus is named in honor of the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of the Botanical Garden of Bologna, Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna. Aldrovanda vesiculosa primary habitat is shallow standing waters with humic elements. It has been reported from scattered locations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Aldrovanda

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
waterwheel plantPBDB
Sits inside
DroseraceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Eocene — about 2 of 39 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 12 of 39 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 25 of 39 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 39 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–8.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.8–7.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.6–6.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.5–5.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya11.63 Mya38.4 Mya2.9 Mya

39 occurrences of Aldrovanda 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

39 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

3 formations

Odderup — 54.93°N, 10.27°EHeadon Beds — 50.75°N, 1.60°WLower Headon — 50.67°N, 1.53°W

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The named rock units Aldrovanda has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aldrovanda and its relatives

Miocene

Where Aldrovanda and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

83 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Aldrovanda, 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

6 references

Each of the 39 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 Aldrovanda

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aldrovanda 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 itDroseraceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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