Unambiguous Pinaceae taxa are described from the Late Jurassic onwards. This fossil record does not, however, match the molecular estimates of deep divergence within Pinaceae. In recent years, new anatomical observations and revisions have reassigned several species of Schizolepis Braun to the emended genus Schizolepidopsis Doweld, 2001 emend. Domogatskaya & Herman. This genus is currently regarded as an early representative of Pinaceae, notably sharing bi-ovulate scales, winged seeds, and a more or less constricted cone with scales arranged helically around the axis. This would strongly push the earliest Pinaceae to the early Mesozoic or even the latest Paleozoic. Here, we describe an ovulate cone from the Lower Jurassic of Belgium. Despite its partial preservation, the use of micro-CT allowed the reconstruction of its morphology in detail. This reconstruction highlights several characters (an ovulate cone with helically arranged scales, constrained, bilobed and bi-ovulate scales with probable winged seeds) diagnostic of the genus Schizolepidopsis, and constituting a new species, which we name Schizolepidopsis gerrienneii sp. nov. This description emphasizes several anatomical characters previously rarely noted for this genus. This ovulate cone represents the first occurrence of this genus in the Early Jurassic of Western Europe, which further completes the picture of its distribution and diversity and supports a much deeper origin of Pinaceae that usually conceived.
