Cathaya

Cathaya is a genus in the pine family, Pinaceae, with one known living species, Cathaya argyrophylla. In foliage and cone morphology, Cathaya has been considered a member of the subfamily Laricoideae, closely related to Pseudotsuga and Larix, but more recent genetic studies have suggested a closer relationship to Pinus and Picea in the subfamily Pinoideae. A second species, C. nanchuanensis, is now treated as a synonym, as it does not differ from C. argyrophylla in any characteristics.

Cathaya

Charles76 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
PinoideaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 129 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 17 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence48.07 Mya774 ka57 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Cathaya 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

17 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

Allenby — 49.45°N, 120.57°W

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The named rock units Cathaya has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cathaya and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Cathaya and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

156 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Cathaya, 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

5 references

Each of the 17 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 content1

Picture of Cathaya

Credit
Charles76
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cathaya 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 itPinoideae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Chun and Kuang 1962