Cyperaceae

The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family contains around 5,500 described species in about 90 genera, the largest with over 2,000 species being the "true sedges" or Carex.

Cyperaceae

Uncredited · 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
Also called
sedgePBDB
Sits inside
PoalesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 119 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 916 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 916 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 916 occurrencesEocene — about 48 of 916 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 55 of 916 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 431 of 916 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 112 of 916 occurrencesPleistocene — about 234 of 916 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 10 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 10 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 10 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 9 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 8 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 10 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 21 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 32 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 21 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 128 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 180 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 111 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 358 occurrences119.57 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

916 occurrences of Cyperaceae 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

916 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

51 formations

odderup — 54.93°N, 10.27°EOlduvai — 2.96°S, 35.31°EItahana — 36.50°N, 139.00°EItahana — 36.32°N, 138.85°EItahana — 36.25°N, 139.00°EBagshot — 50.70°N, 2.03°WChiquimil — 26.47°S, 65.93°WChiquimil — 26.64°S, 66.05°WChiquimil — 26.68°S, 66.00°WChiquimil — 27.19°S, 66.84°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WSanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EHeadon Beds — 50.75°N, 1.60°WSan José — 26.71°S, 66.02°WSan José — 26.86°S, 65.71°WMorwell — 38.23°S, 146.62°EYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°EAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°EDeccan Intertrappean — 18.95°N, 72.80°EDeccan Intertrappean — 21.01°N, 78.60°EWoolwich — 51.38°N, 0.10°WWoolwich — 51.52°N, 0.08°WImuruk Volcanics — 65.88°N, 163.13°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSanmen — 37.75°N, 112.50°ESanmen — 34.92°N, 111.25°ESanying — 26.51°N, 100.16°EKettle River — 49.05°N, 118.91°WGolden Valley — 45.50°N, 103.25°WChausuyama — 36.58°N, 138.17°EOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°ESeto Porcelain Clay — 35.00°N, 137.00°ETokoname — 34.88°N, 136.85°E

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The named rock units Cyperaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 812 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cyperaceae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cyperaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,007 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 241 sites for Cyperaceae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

96 references

Each of the 916 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. 84 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 Cyperaceae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cyperaceae 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 itPoales through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jussieu 1789