Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Prunus

Benjamin Gimmel, BenHur · 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
Also called
plumPBDB
Sits inside
RosaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 121 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 4 of 121 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 121 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 121 occurrencesEocene — about 13 of 121 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 121 occurrencesMiocene — about 55 of 121 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 121 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 121 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 2 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 1 occurrence97–92 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences92–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–49 Mya — about 4 occurrences49–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 6 occurrences29–24 Mya — about 9 occurrences24–19 Mya — about 8 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 16 occurrences15–9.7 Mya — about 25 occurrences9.7–4.9 Mya — about 11 occurrences4.9–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences100.5 Mya11.7 ka146 Mya0 Mya

121 occurrences of Prunus 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

121 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

30 formations

Renova — 45.20°N, 112.16°WRenova — 45.50°N, 112.50°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.37°WChloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.35°WFort Union — 43.75°N, 105.00°WFort Union — 46.17°N, 108.43°WFort Union — 46.88°N, 104.93°WFort Union — 44.28°N, 105.20°WAspen Shale — 42.09°N, 110.51°WAspen Shale — 42.08°N, 110.16°WBopesta — 35.30°N, 118.50°WTsuyazaki — 33.81°N, 130.45°EMotojuku — 36.25°N, 138.75°EBuffalo Canyon — 39.20°N, 117.78°WFlorissant — 38.92°N, 105.25°WMiddlegate — 39.25°N, 117.88°WBeaverdam — 42.24°N, 114.08°WCoal Valley — 39.52°N, 119.99°WCoal Valley — 39.31°N, 119.65°WAnimas — 37.28°N, 107.88°WAnimas — 37.28°N, 107.78°WRaton — 37.00°N, 104.48°WRaton — 37.13°N, 104.85°WDawson Arkose — 39.22°N, 104.22°WDawson Arkose — 38.93°N, 104.60°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELatah — 47.64°N, 117.45°WLatah — 47.70°N, 116.75°WAllenby — 49.45°N, 120.57°WOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.33°EValentine — 42.00°N, 100.43°WGreen River — 39.78°N, 107.87°WPyramid — 39.90°N, 119.55°WMerhten — 37.61°N, 120.59°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°E

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The named rock units Prunus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 55 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Prunus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Prunus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

840 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Prunus, 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

43 references

Each of the 121 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. 31 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 Prunus

Credit
Benjamin Gimmel, BenHur
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itRosaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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