Cones of extinct cycladales from the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire

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Abstract
The Cycadales were throughout the nineteenth century confused with the large fossil family the Bennettitales and thus regarded as a dominant Mesozoic group. Increasing knowledge has, however, led to the inclusion in the Bennettitales of most of the leaf and stem types which had been regarded as fossil cycads; and at the same time it was realized that many of the reproductive organs supposed to belong to this family had been referred to it on superficial evidence and the importance of the Cycads as a fossil family thus seemed very doubtful. Detailed work on leaf structure has, however, gone far to rehabilitate the fossil Cycadales; it has been shown that several common Mesozoic leaf genera have Cycadean anatomy, though curiously enough not the ones which look most like leaves of living Cycads. Less progress has so far been made with the reproductive organs; apart from a very few critically described specimens, we have only some unsatisfying descriptions.

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