Cola lateritia

Cola is a genus of trees native to the tropical forests of Africa, classified in the family Malvaceae, subfamily Sterculioideae. Species in this genus are sometimes referred to as kola tree or kola nut for the caffeine-containing fruit produced by the trees that is often used as a flavoring ingredient in beverages. The genus was thought to be closely related to the South American genus Theobroma, or cocoa, but the latter is now placed in a different subfamily. They are evergreen trees, growing up to 20 m tall, with glossy ovoid leaves up to 30 cm long and star-shaped fruit.

A picture published with the record for Cola lateritia. What it shows has not been checked.

Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen · 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.

Time the record covers

At most 780 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 1.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.08 Mya1.3 Mya

3 occurrences of Cola lateritia on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

3 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

Koobi Fora — 3.85°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 4.06°N, 36.33°E

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The named rock units Cola lateritia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cola lateritia and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cola lateritia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

61 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Cola lateritia, 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

1 reference

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Cola lateritia

Credit
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cola lateritia 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 itFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.