Comptonia columbiana

Comptonia columbiana is an extinct species of sweet fern in the flowering plant family Myricaceae. The species is known from fossil leaves found in the early Eocene deposits of central to southern British Columbia, Canada, plus northern Washington state, United States, and, tentatively, the late Eocene of Southern Idaho and Earliest Oligocene of Oregon, United States.

Comptonia columbiana

Kevmin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
ComptoniaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 7 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 7 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48.07 Mya33.9 Mya56.6 Mya26.7 Mya

7 occurrences of Comptonia columbiana on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

7 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

3 formations

Klondike Mountain — 48.65°N, 118.73°WAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.57°WJohn Day — 44.15°N, 120.31°W

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The named rock units Comptonia columbiana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Comptonia columbiana and its relatives

Eocene

Where Comptonia columbiana and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

125 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Comptonia columbiana, 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 7 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 Comptonia columbiana

Credit
Kevmin
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Comptonia columbiana 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 itComptonia through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dawson 1890