Celastraceae

The Celastraceae, also known as the staff-vine or bittersweet family, are a family of 99 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only Celastrus, Euonymus, Maytenus and Stackhousia widespread in temperate climates, and Parnassia (bog-stars) found in alpine and arctic climates.

Celastraceae

Uncredited · 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
bittersweetPBDB
Sits inside
CelastralesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 94 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 24 of 94 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 94 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 15 of 94 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 94 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 29 of 94 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 94 occurrencesPleistocene — about 18 of 94 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 11 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 7 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 13 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 19 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

94 occurrences of Celastraceae 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

94 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

27 formations

Hell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 45.39°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.40°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 46.30°N, 103.89°WHell Creek — 46.16°N, 103.83°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.96°WHell Creek — 46.32°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.23°N, 103.93°WHell Creek — 46.14°N, 103.85°WNgorora — 0.88°N, 35.80°ESepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WProtection — 49.00°N, 124.00°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EShihti — 25.16°N, 121.59°EDeccan Intertrappean — 23.11°N, 80.61°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.23°N, 79.01°EElandsfontyn — 33.97°S, 18.12°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ELamar River — 44.00°N, 110.00°WCretaceous — 43.21°N, 104.63°WExtension — 49.00°N, 124.00°WAldrich Station — 38.49°N, 118.90°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°ERockdale — 30.32°N, 97.30°WDouglas Canyon — 47.45°N, 119.87°WCullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.18°WBlack Creek — 34.55°N, 80.13°WBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°EYuhuatai — 32.08°N, 118.75°E

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The named rock units Celastraceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Celastraceae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Celastraceae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,357 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 81 sites for Celastraceae, 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

35 references

Each of the 94 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. 23 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 Celastraceae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCelastrales through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brown 1814