Smilax

Smilax is a genus of about 300–350 species, found in the tropics and subtropics worldwide. They are climbing flowering plants, many of which are woody and/or thorny, in the monocotyledon family Smilacaceae, native throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Common names include catbriers, greenbriers, prickly-ivys and smilaxes. Sarsaparilla is a name used specifically for the Neotropical S. ornata as well as a catch-all term in particular for American species. Occasionally, the non-woody species such as the smooth herbaceous greenbrier are separated as genus Nemexia; they are commonly known by the rather ambiguous name carrion flowers.

Smilax

Uncredited · 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
SmilacaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 29 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 29 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 29 occurrencesEocene — about 10 of 29 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 29 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 29 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 29 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 29 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

29 occurrences of Smilax 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

29 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

17 formations

Yagii — 36.08°N, 139.17°ESepulcher — 44.00°N, 110.00°WOgawa — 36.42°N, 138.08°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EGreen River — 41.10°N, 109.30°WFrontier — 41.79°N, 110.54°WMerhten — 37.61°N, 120.59°WChallis Volcanics — 44.36°N, 114.22°WTemblor — 36.14°N, 120.36°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EBangmai — 23.90°N, 100.02°EXiaolongtan — 23.81°N, 103.20°EChangsheling — 23.75°N, 106.92°ENadu — 22.80°N, 108.33°ENanlin — 25.12°N, 98.83°ESayama — 35.78°N, 139.38°ELower — 31.95°N, 76.27°E

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The named rock units Smilax has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Smilax and its relatives

Miocene

Where Smilax and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

707 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Smilax, 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

23 references

Each of the 29 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. 11 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 content3

Picture of Smilax

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Smilax auriculata · FSU:FSU

3D model

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

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 itSmilacaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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