Equisetum

Equisetum is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. The oldest remains of modern Equisetum species first appear in the Early Jurassic.

Equisetum

Ragnhild&Neil Crawford from Sweden · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
horsetailPBDB
Sits inside
EquisetaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 323 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 0 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 395 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 1 of 395 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 4 of 395 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 10 of 395 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 395 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 59 of 395 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 17 of 395 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 92 of 395 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 32 of 395 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 395 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 25 of 395 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 41 of 395 occurrencesEocene — about 67 of 395 occurrencesOligocene — about 6 of 395 occurrencesMiocene — about 17 of 395 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 395 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 395 occurrences366–354 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences354–342 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences342–329 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences329–317 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences305–293 Mya — about 1 occurrence293–281 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences281–268 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences268–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–244 Mya — about 11 occurrences244–232 Mya — about 14 occurrences232–220 Mya — about 21 occurrences220–207 Mya — about 14 occurrences207–195 Mya — about 15 occurrences195–183 Mya — about 7 occurrences183–171 Mya — about 30 occurrences171–159 Mya — about 72 occurrences159–146 Mya — about 23 occurrences146–134 Mya — about 7 occurrences134–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–110 Mya — about 9 occurrences110–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–85 Mya — about 5 occurrences85–73 Mya — about 5 occurrences73–61 Mya — about 24 occurrences61–49 Mya — about 77 occurrences49–37 Mya — about 16 occurrences37–24 Mya — about 8 occurrences24–12 Mya — about 11 occurrences12–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences323.4 Mya129 ka366 Mya0 Mya

395 occurrences of Equisetum on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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

395 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

98 formations

Saltwick — 54.40°N, 1.00°WSaltwick — 54.50°N, 0.75°WSaltwick — 54.30°N, 0.40°WSaltwick — 54.50°N, 1.00°WSaltwick — 54.37°N, 1.25°WSaltwick — 54.33°N, 0.50°WMolteno — 29.50°S, 29.50°EMolteno — 30.50°S, 29.00°EMolteno — 28.57°S, 29.05°EMolteno — 31.10°S, 26.50°EMolteno — 31.50°S, 28.00°EMolteno — 31.48°S, 26.47°EMolteno — 31.47°S, 26.43°EMolteno — 31.50°S, 27.92°EMolteno — 31.47°S, 26.83°EMolteno — 31.57°S, 26.22°EMolteno — 30.68°S, 28.52°EMolteno — 31.50°S, 27.00°EMolteno — 31.05°S, 26.80°EMolteno — 31.57°S, 26.27°EMolteno — 30.60°S, 26.95°EMolteno — 30.48°S, 27.10°EMolteno — 30.68°S, 26.95°EMolteno — 31.62°S, 27.52°EFort Union — 45.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 109.03°WFort Union — 44.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.02°N, 103.76°WFort Union — 42.28°N, 108.11°WFort Union — 41.33°N, 109.24°WFort Union — 41.16°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 41.14°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.46°N, 108.71°WFort Union — 41.57°N, 108.58°WFort Union — 46.42°N, 103.98°WFort Union — 47.10°N, 104.72°WFort Union — 46.96°N, 104.90°WFort Union — 44.37°N, 107.60°WFort Union — 47.13°N, 107.52°WFort Union — 46.00°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 104.70°WFort Union — 47.97°N, 102.55°WFort Union — 47.00°N, 103.00°WWillwood — 44.29°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.18°N, 108.59°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 107.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.33°WWillwood — 44.28°N, 108.05°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 110.00°WWillwood — 44.40°N, 108.84°WCape Stewart — 70.50°N, 22.60°WWasatch — 41.16°N, 108.93°WWasatch — 41.87°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 41.83°N, 108.04°WWasatch — 41.69°N, 108.20°WWasatch — 42.33°N, 108.22°WWasatch — 39.53°N, 107.78°WMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 47.00°N, 110.00°WMorrison — 37.32°N, 109.38°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WMorrison — 38.81°N, 108.32°WMorrison — 41.91°N, 106.01°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WChallis Volcanics — 44.37°N, 114.24°WCloughton — 54.30°N, 0.40°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.10°WGreen River — 39.00°N, 110.00°WGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WGreen River — 39.23°N, 108.22°WGreen River — 42.13°N, 110.13°WGolden Valley — 45.50°N, 103.25°WGolden Valley — 46.88°N, 102.78°WGolden Valley — 46.98°N, 102.05°WGolden Valley — 46.92°N, 102.08°WGolden Valley — 47.00°N, 101.55°WGolden Valley — 47.10°N, 102.98°WSepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WCoal Suite — 42.70°N, 42.00°ECoal Suite — 42.40°N, 42.90°EKootenai — 47.48°N, 111.37°WLower Saltwick — 54.30°N, 0.40°WBoroldai and Kashkara Suites — 43.00°N, 70.00°ESarydiirmen' Suite — 43.90°N, 52.90°ESarydiirmen' Suite — 44.20°N, 52.20°EHorseshoe Canyon — 51.78°N, 112.12°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.82°N, 112.98°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.71°N, 112.93°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.46°N, 112.67°WRajmahal — 25.08°N, 87.74°ERajmahal — 25.03°N, 87.59°ERajmahal — 25.24°N, 87.71°ERajmahal — 25.23°N, 87.49°EPaskapoo — 54.33°N, 118.75°WTuyuc and Chaartash Suites — 41.00°N, 74.00°EUpper Shurab Suite — 40.00°N, 70.50°ENaturita — 39.11°N, 109.14°WNaturita — 39.00°N, 109.00°WLance — 43.08°N, 104.63°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.59°W

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The named rock units Equisetum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 74 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 73 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Equisetum and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Equisetum and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

1,241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 311 sites for Equisetum, and this reads 240 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

119 references

Each of the 395 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. 107 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 content2

Picture of Equisetum

Credit
Ragnhild&Neil Crawford from Sweden
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itEquisetaceae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

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