Early Cretaceous macrofloras 
29 
dentate or serrate margins. Phyllopteroides laevis 
leaflets may also have entire margins, however, 
they differ from P. lanceolata by their more broadly 
elliptical shape. White's (1961a) Linguifolium 
denmeadi from the Cronin Sandstone, Officer Basin, 
is here regarded as a detached P. westralensis 
pinnule. 
Cantrill and Webb (1987) suggested that the 
successive stratigraphic ranges of P. laevis, P. 
serrata, and P. dentata in Victoria represented 
elements of an evolutionary lineage. They also 
suggested that the Queensland P. lanceolata arose 
from the same Neocomian-Aptian stock but 
evolved independently of the Albian P. dentata of 
Victoria. The Neocomian-Barremian P. ivestralensis 
may represent a separate lineage derived from 
entire-margined P. laevis stock which became 
restricted to the lowlands of the continent's 
western margin. Few fossil fronds outside 
Australia are comparable with P. westralensis 
although Thinnfeldia chnnakhalensis Sah and Sukh 
Dev, 1958 may be referable to Phyllopteroides based 
on its P. /aeuis-like pinnules. 
Order Gleicheniales 
Family Gleicheniaceae 
Genus Microphyllopteris Arber, 1917 
Type species 
Microphyllopteris pectinata (Hector) Arber, 1917; 
Lower Jurassic; Mataura Falls, New Zealand. 
Microphyllopteris gleichenioides 
(Oldham and Morris) Walkom, 1919a 
Figures 41; 5B 
1993 Microphyllopteris gleichenoides; McLoughlin 
and Guppy; figures 5, 6. 
Lectotype 
No. 4444 (Geological Survey of India, Calcutta); 
Rajmahal Series (?Lower Cretaceous), Rajmahal 
Hills, India. Selected by Bose and Sah (1968). 
Material 
WAM P.88.1. 
Distribution 
Broome Sandstone (Neocomian-Barremian), 
Canning Basin; Dalrymple Sandstone (Upper 
Jurassic), Laura Basin, Queensland (Walkom 1928); 
Burrum Coal Measures (Albian), Maryborough 
Basin, Queensland (Walkom 1919a); Rajmahal 
Series and equivalents (Lower Cretaceous) of 
Peninsula India (Seward and Sahni 1920; Bose and 
Sah 1968). 
Description 
Frond at least bipinnate (Figure 5B). Rachis 
slender (<2 mm wide). Pinnae linear, opposite to 
subopposite, arched distally, up to 2.5 mm wide, 
30 mm long, inserted on rachis at 70°-90°. Pinnules 
minute (lxl mm), showing full basal attachment, 
semicircular, alternate, apices rounded (Figure 41). 
No sporangia evident. 
Comments 
Arber (1917) established Microphyllopteris for 
fronds resembling extant Gleichenia ferns but 
lacking definitive evidence for a relationship to that 
genus. However, many workers have continued to 
assign such fronds to Gleichenites Goeppert, 1836 or 
Gleichenia Smith, 1793 even in the absence of fertile 
material. Microphyllopteris gleichenioides (Oldham 
and Morris) Walkom 1919a and comparable forms 
have been reported from Upper Jurassic to mid- 
Cretaceous strata in Queensland (Walkom 1919a, 
1928; McLoughlin et al. 1995). Gleichenites 
nanopinnatus (Douglas) Drinnan and Chambers 
1986 from the Lower Cretaceous of Victoria has 
larger and more dissected pinnules than M. 
gleichenioides. 
Gleichenites sp. of Arrondo and Petriella (1980) 
from the Argentinian Jurassic is a much larger 
frond than M. gleichenioides but has similar 
pinnules and may be closely related to the 
Australian species. Gleichenites sanmarlinii Halle 
emend. Herbst 1962a and G. vegagrandis Herbst, 
1962a from the Cretaceous of Argentina and 
Antarctica also have similar diminutive 
semicircular pinnules although these are slightly 
inclined distally (Herbst 1962a, b). 
Some Indian examples of 'Gleichenites 
gleichenoides' and Microphyllopteris sp. illustrated by 
Sah (1965) and Bose and Sah (1968) differ slightly 
from the Australian M. gleichenioides in having 
pinnules which are strongly deflected towards the 
pinna apex (insertion angle about 60°). 
Order ?Pteridales 
Family ?Vittariaceae 
Roebuckia gen. nov. 
Type species 
Roebuckia spatulata sp. nov.; Broome Sandstone 
(Neocomian-Barremian); Gantheaume Point, 
Broome, Canning Basin, Western Australia. 
Diagnosis and discussion 
See under Roebuckia spatulata below. 
Distribution 
Known only from the type formation. 
