Introduction: Bennettitales are an extinct kind of Bennettitales Evolution/Taxonomy: seed plant, they are represented by at As of now, scientists are still studying the least two species of Ptilophyllum, relationships between prehistoric plants and including P. boolensis and P. modern plants. The evolution of fasciatum. Bennettitales, an extinct angiosperms is one mystery still yet to be lineage of Mesozoic seed plants with solved. Some scientists believe that cycad-like foliage and flowerlike Bennettitales are an ancestor of the modern reproductive structures. angiosperm. Evidence for this is the Bennettitales reproductive structure, which contains both

male and female organs, like angiosperms, and is surrounded in structures that resemble petals, and could be homoloous with petals on modern flowering plants.

Habitat/Range: Bennettitales were found mostly in stable Morphology: environments like Bennettitaless are reconstructed as small, floodplains and swamps. sparsely branched or unbranched trees or It is known from Early Geologic range (dates): 262-66 small shrubs. The trunk is slender or in some Cretaceous fossilized Bennettitales barrel-shaped. Leaves are Mya during the age of cycads forests in the Antarctic large, Simple or pinnately divided, very This group of plants flourished in similar in gross morphology to some cycad islands, India, and the triassic to lower cretaceous. leaves. China. There are 2 groups within Bennettitales differing in unique traits they are Cycadeoidaceae (stout trunk and Julia Cauley, Juan Carrillo, Jong bisporangiate strobili, serving as reproductive system) and Williamsoniaceae (with either Park bisporangiate or monosporangiate and GEOL204 The Fossil Record slender branching wood like trunks) Spring 2019 Section 0105