Lepidopteris

Lepidopteris
Temporal range:
Lepidopteris madagascariensis leaf, Early Triassic Newport Formation, Bungan Head, New South Wales, Australia.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Order: Peltaspermales
Family: Peltaspermaceae
Genus: Lepidopteris
Schimper 1869
Species
  • Lepidopteris stuttgardiensis (Jaeger) Schimper 1869 (type)
  • Lepidopteris callipteroides (Carpentier) Retallack 2002
  • Lepidopteris haizeri Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris heterolateralis Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris martinsii (Kurtze)Townrow 1960
  • Lepidopteris microcellularis Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris madagascariensis Carpentier 1935
  • Lepidopteris ottonis (Goeppert) Schimper 1869
  • Lepidopteris remota (Goeppert) Dobruskina 1980
  • Lepidopteris scassoi Elgorriaga, Escapa & Cúneo 2019
  • Lepidopteris stormbergensis (Seward) Townrow 1956

Lepidopteris ("scaly fern") is a form genus for leaves of Peltaspermaceae, an extinct family of seed plants, which lived from around 260 to 190 million years ago, from the Late Permian to Early Jurassic. Fossils of the genus have been found across both hemispheres. Nine species are currently recognized.Lepidopteris was a common and widespread seed fern, which survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event but was largely wiped out by the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris callipteroides is especially common between the first two episodes of the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and L. ottonis forms a comparable acme zone immediately before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris would persist into the Early Jurassic in Patagonia, represented by the species Lepidopteris scassoi.