Nymphaeaceae

Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on or rising from the surface. Leaves are oval and heart-shaped in Barclaya. Leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria and Euryale.

Nymphaeaceae

TC Tao · CC BY 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
water lilyPBDB
Sits inside
NymphaealesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 18 of 346 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 64 of 346 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 64 of 346 occurrencesEocene — about 31 of 346 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 34 of 346 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 94 of 346 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 18 of 346 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 346 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–115 Mya — about 7 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 6 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 1 occurrence107–103 Mya — about 1 occurrence103–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 7 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences90–86 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–81 Mya — about 2 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 28 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 41 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 24 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 18 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 7 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 5 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 10 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 13 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 14 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 10 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 27 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 33 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 27 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 35 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

346 occurrences of Nymphaeaceae 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

346 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

65 formations

Fort Union — 45.00°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 109.03°WFort Union — 46.50°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 46.35°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 46.35°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 46.02°N, 103.76°WFort Union — 46.39°N, 103.96°WFort Union — 46.46°N, 104.01°WFort Union — 46.92°N, 103.52°WFort Union — 46.42°N, 105.83°WFort Union — 44.92°N, 107.17°WFort Union — 46.10°N, 109.95°WFort Union — 46.00°N, 103.00°WFort Union — 47.13°N, 107.52°WFort Union — 46.58°N, 105.88°WFort Union — 43.88°N, 108.52°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 104.70°WFort Union — 43.93°N, 108.65°WFort Union — 45.47°N, 103.21°WFort Union — 46.43°N, 105.24°WHell Creek — 46.30°N, 103.88°WHell Creek — 46.39°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 46.02°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.13°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 46.29°N, 103.98°WRavenscrag — 49.51°N, 109.02°WAbu Roash — 30.00°N, 28.00°EAbu Roash — 29.00°N, 29.00°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EHeadon Beds — 50.75°N, 1.60°WOdderup — 54.93°N, 10.27°EDunvegan — 55.92°N, 118.48°WDunvegan — 56.22°N, 120.12°WDunvegan — 59.00°N, 118.27°WJohn Day — 45.00°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.57°N, 119.63°WTullock — 46.41°N, 105.84°WTullock — 46.58°N, 105.88°WTullock — 45.77°N, 105.12°WRio da Batateira — 7.25°S, 39.45°WLaki — 23.53°N, 68.95°EChorrillo — 50.51°S, 72.56°WWoolwich — 51.38°N, 0.10°WWoolwich — 51.45°N, 0.02°WTokoname — 34.67°N, 136.92°EEagle — 44.98°N, 108.87°WMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°WDenver — 38.85°N, 104.66°WDenver — 39.75°N, 105.22°WFort Union? — 43.04°N, 104.77°WBentiu — 9.35°N, 29.13°EKucha — 42.00°N, 83.00°EKucha — 40.08°N, 94.83°ETura — 25.50°N, 90.14°ETura — 25.38°N, 90.22°EDeccan Intertrappean — 22.01°N, 79.19°ECherra — 25.31°N, 91.73°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Nymphaeaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 164 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nymphaeaceae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Nymphaeaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,203 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 184 sites for Nymphaeaceae, 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

80 references

Each of the 346 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. 68 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 Nymphaeaceae

Credit
TC Tao
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Nymphaeaceae 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 itNymphaeales through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Salisbury 1805