A new species of Masculostrobus Seward producing Classopollis pollen from the Jurassic of Iran

A male cone associated with Brachyphyllum expansum (Sternberg) is described from the Middle Jurassic of the Elburz Mountains in Northern Iran (Persia). The cone is described as M. rishra a new species of Masculostrobus Seward and the genus is emended to restrict its use for conifer male cones containing non-saccate pollen. M. rishra is compared with the cones occurring with B. expansum at the type locality of the latter in England. M. rishra contains pollen of the kind known as Classopollis torosus (Ressinger) sensu lat. and it is compared with the male cones of the Jurassic conifers, Cheirolepidium muensteri (Schenk), Brachyphyllum Scotti Kendall and Pagiophyllum connivens Kendall. The possibility that these conifers with similar male cones and pollen all belong to a single family, the Cheirolepidaceae, is suggested.