Melastomataceae

Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, shrubs, or small trees.

Melastomataceae

Stan Shebs · 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
MyrtalesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 50 occurrencesPaleocene — about 5 of 50 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 50 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 50 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 25 of 50 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 50 occurrencesPleistocene — about 14 of 50 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 1 occurrence61–58 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–13 Mya — about 6 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 14 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences61.66 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

50 occurrences of Melastomataceae 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

50 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

6 formations

Iguincha — 3.40°S, 79.10°WIguincha — 3.00°S, 79.00°WFort Union — 42.75°N, 105.10°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 106.82°WFort Union — 48.99°N, 105.27°WTullock — 46.58°N, 105.88°WTullock — 47.10°N, 104.72°WSan José — 26.71°S, 66.02°WSan José — 26.86°S, 65.71°WGolden Valley — 45.50°N, 103.25°WLower — 29.15°N, 80.19°E

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The named rock units Melastomataceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Melastomataceae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Melastomataceae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

402 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Melastomataceae, 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

14 references

Each of the 50 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. 2 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 Melastomataceae

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

No 3D scan of Melastomataceae 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 itMyrtales through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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