structural:reformatting, quality:correction
Evolution and biogeography

The fossil record of Primulaceae s.l. is sparse, but the crown group has been estimated as c. 46-61 million years old. The crown primuloids have been dated to c. 102 mya, with Primulaceae/Ebenaceae divergence at 80 mya. Crown ages for the Primulaceae subfamilies vary from 24 mya for the Maesoideae, the basal group, to 70 mya for the Theophrastoideae.

The primuloids probably originated in a shared Neotropical / Indo-Malaysian ancestral range, with the Primulaceae/Ebenaceae clade occupying the neotropics. Theophrastoideae is nearly all neotropical with a more recent migration out of the realm found in the aquatic Samolus genus. The divergence between Theophrastoideae and Primuloideae-Myrsinoideae at 70 mya represents a vicariant event between the Neotropics and the Palearctic in the case of the latter. The Primuloideae originating in the Palearctic, persisted till the last 16 mya, when it started to shift into the Nearctic.