Arecaceae

The Arecaceae are a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially called palm trees. Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, arranged at the top of an unbranched stem, except for the Hyphaene genus, which has branched palms. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts.

Arecaceae

Patrick Verdier, Free On Line Photos · Copyrighted free use · 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
palmPBDB
Sits inside
MonocotsPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 227 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 1677 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 2 of 1677 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 1677 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 1677 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 2 of 1677 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 10 of 1677 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 282 of 1677 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 528 of 1677 occurrencesEocene — about 598 of 1677 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 65 of 1677 occurrencesMiocene — about 105 of 1677 occurrencesPliocene — about 22 of 1677 occurrencesPleistocene — about 55 of 1677 occurrences242–234 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences234–226 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences226–218 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences218–210 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences210–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–153 Mya — about 1 occurrence153–145 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences145–137 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences137–129 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences129–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–113 Mya — about 4 occurrences113–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–97 Mya — about 4 occurrences97–89 Mya — about 10 occurrences89–81 Mya — about 16 occurrences81–73 Mya — about 27 occurrences73–64 Mya — about 318 occurrences64–56 Mya — about 411 occurrences56–48 Mya — about 272 occurrences48–40 Mya — about 149 occurrences40–32 Mya — about 212 occurrences32–24 Mya — about 48 occurrences24–16 Mya — about 60 occurrences16–8.1 Mya — about 42 occurrences8.1–0 Mya — about 95 occurrences227.3 Mya11.7 ka242 Mya0 Mya

1,677 occurrences of Arecaceae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

1,677 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

169 formations

Yaw — 23.25°N, 94.25°EYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.35°N, 80.08°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.02°N, 78.56°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.18°N, 79.95°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.23°N, 79.01°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.14°N, 79.08°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.09°N, 79.55°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.03°N, 79.11°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.19°N, 80.70°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.78°N, 78.26°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.75°N, 81.10°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.11°N, 80.61°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.73°N, 80.39°EDeccan Intertrappean — 17.04°N, 81.78°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.88°N, 78.17°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.14°N, 78.64°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.47°N, 80.22°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.86°N, 80.69°EMisoa — 10.88°N, 72.38°WMisoa — 9.89°N, 71.32°WBara — 25.73°N, 68.07°EBara — 25.75°N, 68.25°EBara — 24.80°N, 67.97°EBara — 25.89°N, 67.92°ELondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.65°WLondon Clay — 51.42°N, 0.75°WLondon Clay — 51.78°N, 1.17°ELondon Clay — 51.37°N, 1.13°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.41°N, 0.91°ELondon Clay — 51.64°N, 0.78°EMirador — 11.00°N, 72.38°WMirador — 10.88°N, 72.38°WMonte Chico — 51.59°S, 72.41°WMonte Chico — 51.18°S, 72.29°WLakhra — 25.73°N, 68.07°ELakhra — 25.75°N, 68.25°ELakhra — 24.80°N, 67.97°ELakhra — 25.25°N, 68.33°EGuasare — 11.00°N, 72.38°WHell Creek — 46.30°N, 103.88°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 46.02°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 45.65°N, 103.62°WHell Creek — 46.29°N, 103.98°WArcillas de el Limbo — 4.90°N, 73.02°WFort Union — 46.02°N, 103.76°WFort Union — 43.50°N, 104.90°WFort Union — 46.46°N, 104.98°WFort Union — 46.46°N, 104.01°WFort Union — 46.15°N, 103.81°WFort Union — 46.42°N, 103.98°WFort Union — 47.10°N, 104.72°WFort Union — 46.10°N, 109.95°WFort Union — 46.00°N, 103.00°WFort Union — 46.09°N, 106.72°WFort Union — 46.62°N, 104.32°WFort Union — 43.62°N, 106.27°WFort Union — 44.24°N, 105.07°WFort Union — 46.35°N, 103.87°WLefipán — 42.67°S, 69.83°WLefipán — 42.58°S, 69.98°WAreniscas de el Limbo — 4.90°N, 73.02°WLa Colonia — 42.99°S, 67.67°WLa Colonia — 43.10°S, 67.75°WLa Colonia — 43.01°S, 67.62°WLa Colonia — 42.50°S, 66.50°WLa Colonia — 42.97°S, 67.54°WSohnari — 25.73°N, 68.07°ESohnari — 25.75°N, 68.25°ESohnari — 25.12°N, 68.12°ESohnari — 25.25°N, 68.33°ESohnari — 25.17°N, 68.50°ESan Fernando — 4.90°N, 73.02°WLa Paz — 7.33°N, 73.33°WMirador — 7.70°N, 72.62°WMirador — 8.98°N, 73.00°WChorrillo — 50.51°S, 72.56°WBaraka — 9.35°N, 29.13°ESan Sebastian — 18.30°N, 66.88°WSan Sebastian — 18.37°N, 66.19°WLos Cuervos — 4.90°N, 73.02°WLos Cuervos — 8.98°N, 73.00°WCerro Bororó — 43.67°S, 67.75°WCerro Bororó — 43.74°S, 67.25°WCerro Bororó — 43.63°S, 67.72°W

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The named rock units Arecaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 145 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 255 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Arecaceae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Arecaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,023 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 741 sites for Arecaceae, and this reads 240 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

211 references

Each of the 1,677 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. 199 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 Arecaceae

Credit
Patrick Verdier, Free On Line Photos
Licence
Copyrighted free use
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMonocots through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. von Berchtold and Presl 1820