Publications

Authors: Alexandros Xafis, Serdar Mayda, Friðgeir Grímsson, Doris Nagel, Tanju Kaya, Kazım Halaçlar The fossiliferous site at Kavakdere is one of many important late Miocene fossil mammal-bearing localities in Anatolia. Previous taxonomic studies on its fauna have revealed a plethora of taxa. However, the fossil Giraffidae from this early Turolian locality were until now poorly [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Shirley A. Graham, Mario Coiro, Bonnie F. Jacobs, Alexandros Xafis, Frank H. Neumann, Louis Scott, Jakub Sakala, Ellen D. Currano, Reinhard Zetter The pantropical Picrodendraceae produce mostly spheroidal to slightly oblate, echinate pollen grains equipped with narrow circular to elliptic pori that can be hard to identify to family level in both [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Bonnie F. Jacobs, Johan L. C. H. van Valkenburg, Jan J. Wieringa, Alexandros Xafis, Neil Tabor, Aaron D. Pan, Reinhard Zetter The palm family, Arecaceae, is notoriously depauperate in Africa today, and its evolutionary, paleobiogeographic, and extinction history there are not well documented by fossils. In this article we report the pollen [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Johan L. C. H. van Valkenburg, Jan J. Wieringa, Alexandros Xafis, Bonnie F. Jacobs, Reinhard Zetter Three currently accepted Sclerosperma species appear to produce four different pollen morphologies. Sclerosperma mannii and S. walkeri pollen share the same distinct reticulate sculpture, but S. profizianum produces three different pollen types (microreticulate, fossulate, and perforate). [...]

Authors: Heidemarie Halbritter, Silvia Ulrich, Friðgeir Grímsson, Martina Weber, Reinhard Zetter, Michael Hesse, Ralf Buchner, Matthias Svojtka, Andrea Frosch-Radivo This book provides a fully illustrated compendium of key terms and basic principles in the field of palynology, making it an indispensable tool for all palynologists. It is a revised and extended edition of “Pollen Terminology. [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Guido W. Grimm, Alastair J. Potts, Reinhard Zetter, Susanne S. Renner Winteraceae comprise c. 130 species in seven genera, with the greatest species diversity in the Pacific (Pseudowintera, Zygogynum), Australia (Bubbia, Tasmannia), New Guinea (Belliolum, Bubbia, Zygogynum, Tasmannia) and Madagascar (Takhtajania). Only Drimysoccurs in South America. Because of their Cretaceous leaves, wood [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Alexandros Xafis, Frank H. Neumann, Louis Scott, Marion K. Bamford, Reinhard Zetter An ongoing re-investigation of the early Miocene Saldanha Bay (South Africa) palynoflora, using combined light andscanning electron microscopy (single grain method), is revealing several pollen types new to the African fossil record. One ofthe elements identified is Loranthaceae pollen. These [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Guido W. Grimm, Reinhard Zetter Earlier studies indicate a strong correlation of pollen morphology and ultrastructure with taxonomy in Loranthaceae. Using high-resolution light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy imaging of the same pollen grains, we document pollen types of 35 genera including 15 studied for the first time. Using a molecular phylogenetic [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Alexandros Xafis, Frank H. Neumann, Reinhard Zetter When applying high-resolution microscopy, the pollen morphology of extant taxa can be used to classify fossil pollen, that is, to address the latter in the established systematic-phylogenetic framework. Here we investigate tetrads and pollen features of 20 different Winteraceae species, most of them belonging to [...]

Authors: John Skartveit, Friðgeir Grímsson, Torsten Wappler Here we describe fossil Bibionidae (Diptera) insects from the late Miocene Hrútagil locality (part of the 9–8 Ma Skarðsströnd–Mókollsdalur formation) in Iceland. This material offers a rare chance to study a fossil insect fauna from a North Atlantic oceanic island. The material includes three species, one from each [...]