Astragalus

Astragalus is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names include milkvetch, locoweed and goat's-thorn. Some pale-flowered vetches are similar in appearance, but they are more vine-like than Astragalus.

Astragalus

Ciar · 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
milkvetchPBDB
Sits inside
FabaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At most 2.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2–5.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.83 Mya2.08 Mya

2 occurrences of Astragalus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

2 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

1 formation

Sanying — 26.51°N, 100.16°E

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The named rock units Astragalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Astragalus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Astragalus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

51 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Astragalus, 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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Astragalus

Credit
Ciar
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itFabaceae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

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