Blechnaceae

Blechnaceae is a family of ferns in the order Polypodiales, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Its status as a family and the number of genera included have both varied considerably. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, the family has 24 genera, and excludes genera placed in the separate family Onocleaceae. The family is divided into three subfamilies, including Blechnoideae s.s. Alternatively, the entire family may be treated as the subfamily Blechnoideae s.l. of a very broadly defined family Aspleniaceae, and include genera others place in Onocleaceae.

Blechnaceae

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
Sits inside
PolypodiopsidaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 251 million years on record.

The record covers at least 251.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 251.902 Mya to 0 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 427 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 9 of 427 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 427 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 427 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 4 of 427 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 5 of 427 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 427 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 146 of 427 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 87 of 427 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 73 of 427 occurrencesEocene — about 45 of 427 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 427 occurrencesMiocene — about 13 of 427 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 427 occurrencesPleistocene — about 28 of 427 occurrences257–248 Mya — about 9 occurrences214–206 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences206–197 Mya — about 1 occurrence197–188 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences188–180 Mya — about 1 occurrence180–171 Mya — about 1 occurrence171–163 Mya — about 5 occurrences163–154 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences154–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–137 Mya — about 4 occurrences137–128 Mya — about 7 occurrences128–120 Mya — about 18 occurrences120–111 Mya — about 78 occurrences111–103 Mya — about 33 occurrences103–94 Mya — about 14 occurrences94–86 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences86–77 Mya — about 14 occurrences77–69 Mya — about 43 occurrences69–60 Mya — about 69 occurrences60–51 Mya — about 41 occurrences51–43 Mya — about 5 occurrences43–34 Mya — about 22 occurrences34–26 Mya — about 8 occurrences26–17 Mya — about 8 occurrences17–8.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.6–0 Mya — about 36 occurrences251.1 Mya11.7 ka257 Mya0 Mya

427 occurrences of Blechnaceae on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

427 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

87 formations

Riachuelo — 10.65°S, 37.04°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 41.55°N, 109.26°WFort Union — 41.55°N, 109.26°WFort Union — 41.33°N, 109.24°WFort Union — 41.46°N, 108.71°WFort Union — 41.57°N, 108.58°WFort Union — 46.35°N, 103.90°WFort Union — 43.88°N, 108.52°WFort Union — 41.23°N, 108.85°WFort Union — 40.59°N, 107.69°WFort Union — 48.99°N, 105.27°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 104.70°WFort Union — 46.92°N, 103.83°WFort Union — 46.02°N, 103.76°WMonte Chico — 51.59°S, 72.41°WMonte Chico — 51.18°S, 72.29°WYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°EBentiu — 11.03°N, 27.74°ELefipán — 42.58°S, 69.98°WLefipán — 42.67°S, 69.83°WAbu Gabra — 11.03°N, 27.74°EHell Creek — 46.29°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 46.02°N, 103.76°WAlmond — 41.77°N, 109.20°WChorrillo — 50.50°S, 72.56°WEagle — 44.98°N, 108.87°WWasatch — 41.82°N, 108.03°WWasatch — 41.69°N, 108.20°WWasatch — 41.93°N, 108.00°WMuribeca — 10.65°S, 37.04°WOcal — 2.62°N, 75.53°WCerro Dorotea — 51.59°S, 72.41°WWillwood — 44.28°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 109.00°WRavenscrag — 49.51°N, 109.02°WBurg El-Arab — 30.99°N, 27.77°ESix Hills — 25.00°N, 28.50°ESix Hills — 25.50°N, 29.00°ESix Hills — 25.50°N, 29.25°EAlamein — 29.00°N, 29.00°EChenque — 45.86°S, 67.57°WChenque — 45.30°S, 69.03°WCerrejón — 11.13°N, 72.56°WPiedra Clavada — 49.53°S, 71.48°WPiedra Clavada — 49.60°S, 71.47°WLa Colonia — 43.10°S, 67.75°WLa Colonia — 43.02°S, 67.66°WLa Colonia — 42.97°S, 67.54°W

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The named rock units Blechnaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 63 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 82 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Blechnaceae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Blechnaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,920 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 298 sites for Blechnaceae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

105 references

Each of the 427 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. 93 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 Blechnaceae

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

No 3D scan of Blechnaceae 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 itPolypodiopsida through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Copeland