Suggested two centuries ago by Robert Hooke, this use of fossils has in the hands of Barrande, Neumayr, the marquis de Saporta (1895), Oswald Heer (1809-1883), and an army of followers developed into a sub-science of vast importance and interest.
Hooker, Heer) regard the Arctic, and some (e.g.
The name is of uncertain origin; some derive it from lolium, tares, quoting Chaucer (C. Shipman's Prologue) "This Loller heer wil prechen us somwhat..
One large specimen is figured by Heer from Lower Cretaceous rocks of Greenland, and by the side of the frond is shown a carpel with lateral ovules, as in the female flower of Cycas; but an examination of the type-specimen in the Copenhagen Museum led the present writer to regard this supposed carpel as valueless.
Professor Nathorst, as the result of a more recent examination of Heer's specimen, found that the segments of the frond are characterized by the presence of two parallel veins instead of a single midrib, with a row of stomata between them; for this type of Cycadean leaf he proposed the generic name Pseudocycas.
