Attalea

Attalea is a large genus of palms native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. This pinnately-leaved, non-spiny genus includes both small palms without an aboveground stem and large trees. The genus has a complicated taxonomic history and has often been divided into four or five genera based on differences in male flowers. Since the genera can only be distinguished on the basis of their male flowers, the existence of intermediate flower types and the existence of hybrids between different genera has been used as an argument for keeping them all in the same genus. This has been supported by recent molecular phylogenies.

A picture published with the record for Attalea. What it shows has not been checked.

João Medeiros · CC BY 2.0 · 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.

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesMiocene57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48.07 Mya23.04 Mya56.8 Mya15.2 Mya

4 occurrences of Attalea on record. 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

4 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

2 formations

La Boca — 9.07°N, 79.67°WChacras — 4.61°S, 81.28°W

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The named rock units Attalea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Attalea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 4 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 content2

Picture of Attalea

Credit
João Medeiros
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Attalea allenii · ftg:60409

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 itThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kunth 1815