Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.

Ranunculus

Jason Hollinger · CC BY 2.0 · 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
RanunculaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 93 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 93 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 93 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 93 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 29 of 93 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 31 of 93 occurrencesPleistocene — about 27 of 93 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 12 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 30 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 27 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

93 occurrences of Ranunculus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

93 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

3 formations

Santa Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°ENorwich Crag — 52.31°N, 1.40°ESanying — 26.51°N, 100.16°E

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The named rock units Ranunculus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 87 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ranunculus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Ranunculus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

724 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Ranunculus, 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

20 references

Each of the 93 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. 8 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 Ranunculus

Credit
Jason Hollinger
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itRanunculaceae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

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