Theobroma

Theobroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It was previously classified as a member of Sterculiaceae, which has been incorporated into Malvaceae to make it monophyletic. It contains 41 species of small understory trees native to the tropical forests of Central and South America.

A picture published with the record for Theobroma. What it shows has not been checked.

Claus Bunks aka Afrobrasil on flickr · 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
PlantaePBDB

Time the record covers

At most 64 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 66 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 3 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 0.5 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences50–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–7.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences67 Mya1 Mya

3 occurrences of Theobroma on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

3 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

London Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°E

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The named rock units Theobroma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Theobroma and its relatives

Eocene

Where Theobroma and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

20 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Theobroma, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Theobroma

Credit
Claus Bunks aka Afrobrasil on flickr
Licence
Public Domain
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
Theobroma cacao · FCAT:DIGI:FCAT_0003

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow 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 itPlantae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

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