Gnetaceae

Gnetum is a genus of gymnosperms, the sole genus in the family Gnetaceae within the Gnetidae. They are tropical evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas. Unlike other gymnosperms, they possess vessel elements in the xylem. Some species have been proposed to have been the first plants to be insect-pollinated as their fossils occur in association with extinct pollinating scorpionflies. Molecular phylogenies based on nuclear and plastid sequences from most of the species indicate hybridization among some of the Southeast Asian species. Fossil-calibrated molecular-clocks suggest that the Gnetum lineages now found in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia are the result of ancient long-distance dispersal across seawater.

Gnetaceae

Agnes Trekker · CC0 · 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
GnetalesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At most 67 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 33.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 6 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 6 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 5 of 6 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–46 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102 Mya33 Mya

6 occurrences of Gnetaceae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

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

Taratu — 43.18°S, 171.78°E

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The named rock units Gnetaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gnetaceae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Gnetaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

49 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Gnetaceae, 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

2 references

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. 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 Gnetaceae

Credit
Agnes Trekker
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gnetaceae 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 itGnetales through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lindley 1834