Ceratophyllum demersum

Ceratophyllum demersum, commonly called hornwort or coontail, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Ceratophyllum. Ceratophyllum demersum is a submerged, free-floating aquatic plant, with a cosmopolitan distribution, native to all continents except Antarctica. It is a harmful weed introduced in New Zealand. It is also a popular aquarium plant. Its genome has been sequenced to study angiosperm evolution.

Ceratophyllum demersum

Totodilefan · 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
Sits inside
CeratophyllumPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesMiocene — about 6 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.7–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.4–1.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

14 occurrences of Ceratophyllum demersum 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

14 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

Santa Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°E

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The named rock units Ceratophyllum demersum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceratophyllum demersum and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ceratophyllum demersum and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

184 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Ceratophyllum demersum, 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

8 references

Each of the 14 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 Ceratophyllum demersum

Credit
Totodilefan
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ceratophyllum demersum was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itCeratophyllum through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1753