Bambusoideae

Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus having individual stalks (culms) reaching a length of 46 meters (151 ft), up to 36 centimeters (14 in) in diameter and a weight of up to 450 kilograms (1,000 lb). It grows in tropical and subtropical regions, especially in Asia. The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 2.5 meters (8 ft) in length, and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii has internodes up to 5 meters (16 ft) in length, exceeded in length only by papyrus. By contrast, the stalks of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the savannas of French Guiana measure only 10–20 millimeters (0.4–0.8 in) in length by about 2 millimeters (0.08 in) in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it most likely comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay.

Bambusoideae

Kamakura · 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
bambooPBDB
Sits inside
PoaceaePBDB
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 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 3 of 63 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 63 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 14 of 63 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 63 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 31 of 63 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 63 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 63 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–66 Mya — about 1 occurrence66–64 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 2 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 5 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence66 Mya2.58 Mya74 Mya0 Mya

63 occurrences of Bambusoideae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

63 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

21 formations

Chenque — 45.87°S, 67.58°WChenque — 45.30°S, 69.03°WMonte León — 50.16°S, 68.41°WMonte León — 50.13°S, 68.40°WMonte León — 47.03°S, 66.80°WDajie — 24.10°N, 101.22°EShengxian — 29.17°N, 121.24°EDeccan Intertrappean — 18.95°N, 72.80°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EChiquimil — 26.83°S, 66.00°WNaera — 22.92°N, 69.68°ENaera — 24.00°N, 71.50°EOgawa — 36.50°N, 138.00°ESaramaguacan — 21.00°N, 77.00°WLa Ollita — 29.54°S, 69.53°WPuerto Madryn — 42.57°S, 64.27°WMacquarie Harbor — 42.17°S, 145.36°EArctowski Cove — 62.17°S, 58.49°WMorwell — 38.23°S, 146.62°EYallourn — 38.22°S, 146.56°ECullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WTipam — 27.39°N, 95.62°ECook Mountain — 36.42°N, 89.56°WLisbon — 31.56°N, 87.90°WJagüel — 39.73°S, 66.70°W

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The named rock units Bambusoideae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bambusoideae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Bambusoideae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,176 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Bambusoideae, 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

31 references

Each of the 63 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. 19 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 Bambusoideae

Credit
Kamakura
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bambusoideae 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 itPoaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Luerssen 1893