A revision of the Pennsylvanian marattialean fern Lobatopteris vestita auct. and related species

Amongst the species referred to the genus Lobatopteris Wagner, 1959, three are especially abundant: Lobatopteris micromiltonii (Bertrand ex Corsin) Wagner, Lobatopteris vestita sensu Wagner (1959) and Lobatopteris lamuriana (Heer) Wagner. However, despite their biostratigraphical significance the taxonomy of these three species has remained poorly resolved and their nomenclature, typification and generic position problematical. This paper attempts to correct these deficiencies and, based upon new characters, transfers these taxa to the new genus Crenulopteris Wittry et al. gen. nov. Biostratigraphically, reassignment of these taxa does not impact the validity of the scheme introduced by Wagner (1984) and modified by Cleal (1991), but does necessitate the re-naming of some biozones.