Cycadeoidea
Cycadeoidea is an extinct genus of bennettitalean plants known from fossil finds in North America and Europe. They lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Taxonomy. William Buckland originally gave the name to two species he described, "C. megalophylla" and "C. microphylla", in 1828, seeing characteristics akin to living cycads. Robert Brown and Mr. Loddiges of Loddiges Nursery in Hackney had seen living cycads and urged him to name the fossils after them. The original type specimens of both taxa have not been located, so new type material has been chosen. Classification of species within the genus is very  difficult, as several trunks have been described as species, and a further fourteen species are known from detached leaf remains, but there is no way of telling which leaf remains go with which trunk remains (if any). Description. "Cycadeoidea" stems were "short and barrel-shaped," with a "crown of pinnate leaves" atop the stem. The majority of "Cycadeoidea" species were "bisexual". The genus may have undergone self-pollination, although it is also possible that insects were involved in the process. The size and shape of the trunk has been used to distinguish species, however forms intermediate between two species suggest  the two might be merely different-sized or aged plants can't be excluded. Fossil sites and species. The following species have been described: The Isle of Portland was the site of the first specimens recovered, described by Buckland as "C. megalophylla" (the type species) and "C. microphylla". "Cycadeoidea gibsoniana" is a species collected from Lower Greensand from Luccombe Chine on the Isle of Wight, notable for the remarkable state of preservation of its plant parts. The original specimen was found by Thomas Field Gibson and was extensively broken and sliced to examine its anatomy. Four well preserved cones of  a species "C. maccafferyi" were uncovered in the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation on Vancouver and Hornby Island in British Columbia.