Hymenophyllum

Hymenophyllum is a genus of ferns in the family Hymenophyllaceae. Its name means "membranous leaf", referring to the very thin translucent tissue of the fronds, which gives rise to the common name filmy fern for this and other thin-leaved ferns. The leaves are generally only one cell thick and lack stomata, making them vulnerable to desiccation. Consequently, they are found only in very humid areas, such as in moist forests and among sheltered rocks. They are small and easy to overlook.

A picture published with the record for Hymenophyllum. What it shows has not been checked.

by Thomas Moore; edited by John Lindley; nature-printed by Henry Bradbury. · 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.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
HymenophylloideaePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 40 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 5 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 5 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 5 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–7.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56 Mya15.98 Mya67 Mya1 Mya

5 occurrences of Hymenophyllum on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

5 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

Denver — 39.75°N, 105.22°W

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The named rock units Hymenophyllum 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.

Hymenophyllum and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hymenophyllum and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

257 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Hymenophyllum, 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 5 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 Hymenophyllum

Credit
by Thomas Moore; edited by John Lindley; nature-printed by Henry Bradbury.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hymenophyllum was found in Sketchfab.

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 itHymenophylloideae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Smith 1793