Lepidopteris

Lepidopteris Temporal range: Middle Permian–Late Triassic PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Lepidopteris madagascariensis leaf, Early Triassic Newport Formation, Bungan Head, New South Wales, Australia.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Phylum:	†Pteridospermophyta
Order:	†Peltaspermales
Family:	†Peltaspermaceae
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 stormbergensis (Seward) Townrow 1956

Lepidopteris ("pleasant fern") is a form genus for leaves of Late Permian to Late Triassic Period Pteridospermophyta, or seed ferns, which lived from around 260 to 200 million years ago in what is now Australia, Antarctica, India, South America, South Africa, Russia and China. Nine species are currently recognized.Lepidopteris was a common and widespread seed fern, which survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event but succumbed to the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris callipteroides is especially common between the first two episodes of Permian-Triassic extinction event, and L. ottonis forms a comparable acme zone immediate before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.

In the form generic system of paleobotany Lepidopteris is used only for leaves, which are fern-like with pinnules attached to the rachis as well as the pinnae. The cuticle of the leaves is thick and has distinctive cuticular structure with stomatal opening overhung by papillae. This nstructure has been used to link the fossil leaves with well preserved reproductive structures in the same deposits. The ovules are commonly arranged in peltate structures, which have been used to assign Lepidopteris to the Order Peltaspermales. Not all leaf species are associated with reproductive material, but well established associations include the following.