The Schizaeales are an ancient and primitive fern order containing three families: the climbing ferns (Lygodiaceae), the grass ferns (Schizaeaceae), and the flowering ferns (Anemiaceae). Today, members of this order have a pantropical distribution. Fossils of Schizaeales date back as early as the Triassic, and by the Late Jurassic, the three modern families had diverged from one another.

The Anemiaceae, often called flowering ferns due to their distinctive fertile fronds (though not to be confused with Osmunda regalis, also commonly known by that name), are easily recognized by their strongly dimorphic foliage. The spore-bearing fronds are narrow and spike-like, superficially resembling the flowering heads of grasses.

Ruffordia goeppertii was a small fern bearing the hallmark dimorphic fronds of Anemiaceae. During the Early Cretaceous, Ruffordia was remarkably widespread, with fossil evidence from the UK, Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Madagascar.

Exceptionally preserved specimens from the Crato Formation of Brazil reveal Ruffordia as one of the dominant groundcover plants in an open, savannah-like environment. These fossils also show adaptations for drought stress, a rarity among ferns. Long before grasses evolved to dominate such habitats, Ruffordia appears to have played a similar ecological role.