Castanea

Chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus Castanea, in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

Castanea

Vassil · 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
chestnutPBDB
Sits inside
FagaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 83 occurrencesPaleocene — about 12 of 83 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 14 of 83 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 83 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 31 of 83 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 13 of 83 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 83 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–52 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences56 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

83 occurrences of Castanea 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

83 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

38 formations

Fort Union — 43.75°N, 105.00°WFort Union — 40.59°N, 107.69°WFort Union — 45.91°N, 106.22°WFort Union — 42.81°N, 105.60°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.16°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WFerris — 41.87°N, 106.43°WDawson Arkose — 38.93°N, 104.60°WDawson Arkose — 39.06°N, 104.21°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WMotojuku — 36.25°N, 138.75°EOgawa — 36.50°N, 138.00°ENagaiwa — 36.00°N, 138.00°ESeto Porcelain Clay — 35.00°N, 137.00°EYadagawa — 35.00°N, 136.00°ELamar River — 44.00°N, 110.00°WTemblor — 36.14°N, 120.36°WYagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°EMiddle Park — 40.07°N, 106.10°WRaton — 37.00°N, 104.48°WWasatch — 39.53°N, 107.78°WAnimas — 37.03°N, 107.20°WFerris? — 41.98°N, 106.84°WDouglas Canyon — 47.45°N, 119.87°WTamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°W

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The named rock units Castanea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Castanea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Castanea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

931 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 70 sites for Castanea, 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 83 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 content3

Picture of Castanea

Credit
Vassil
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nebria Nebria castanea · ETHZ:ENT:0576867

3D model

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

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 itFagaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller 1754