Cola sp.
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.
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 least 9 million years on record.
The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.82 Mya to 1.8 Mya.
6 occurrences of Cola sp. on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
6 occurrences- Miocene50%
- Pleistocene50%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Cola sp. has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Cola sp. and its relatives
MioceneWhere Cola sp. and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
93 taxa- Acacia3 sites
- Brachystegia sp.3 sites
- Canthium3 sites
- Cathormion sp.3 sites
- Cola lateritia3 sites
- Croton3 sites
- Lannea3 sites
- Metridiochoerus andrewsi3 sites
- Millettia3 sites
- Populus3 sites
- Salacia sp.3 sites
- Tabernaemontana3 sites
- Terminalia3 sites
- Zizyphus3 sites
- Alcelaphini2 sites
- Brachylaena hutchisii2 sites
- Connochaetes gentryi2 sites
- Cyprideis2 sites
- Deinotherium bozasi2 sites
- Dioscorea2 sites
- Equus2 sites
- Gazella praethomsoni2 sites
- Gerontochoerus scotti2 sites
- Giraffa2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cola sp., 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
3 references- Koobi Fora Research Project The Fossil Ungulates: Proboscidea, Perissodactyla, Suidae3
- An extinct species of Pollia thunberg (Commelinaceae) from the Miocene Ngorora Formation,Kenya2
- A giant tenrecid from the Miocene of Kenya1
Each of the 6 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 sp.
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Cola sp. 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 MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.