Pteridium

Bracken (Pteridium) is a genus of large, cosmopolitan, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Brackens are noted for their large, highly divided fronds and are found on all continents except Antarctica; their typical habitat is moorland. The word bracken is of Old Norse origin, related to Swedish bräken and Danish bregne, both meaning fern. In the past, the genus was commonly treated as having only one species, Pteridium aquilinum, but the current trend is to subdivide it into about ten species. Like other ferns, brackens reproduce by spores rather than seeds or fruit. The immature fronds, known as fiddleheads, are sometimes eaten, although some contain carcinogenic compounds.

Pteridium

Carl Axel Magnus Lindman · 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
DennstaedtiaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 45 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 45 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 45 occurrencesPleistocene — about 40 of 45 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 14 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 14 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences13.82 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Pteridium on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

45 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

Chloropagus — 39.58°N, 119.37°W

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The named rock units Pteridium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteridium and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pteridium and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

457 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 44 sites for Pteridium, 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

7 references

Each of the 45 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 Pteridium

Credit
Carl Axel Magnus Lindman
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pteridium 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 itDennstaedtiaceae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gleditsch and Scopoli 1760