Publications

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Qin Leng The origin and evolution of angiosperms can be unravelled by using fossil records to determine first occurrences and phytogeographic histories of plant families and genera. Many angiosperm families, for example the Onagraceae, have a poor macrofossil record, but are more common in palynological records. Modern Onagraceae produce pollen [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, David K. Ferguson, Reinhard Zetter Various pollen morphotypes of Decodon from the Cenozoic of North America, Europe, and Asia are described for the first time, using a combination of LM and SEM. The report includes the earliest pollen record of Decodon from the Northern Hemisphere. The pollen grains were obtained from sedimentary [...]

Authors: Thomas Denk, Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter Dispersed pollen from phosphoritic nodules of early Oligocene age from Cospuden (Rupelian, Saxony, Central Europe) comprises six distinct types of Fagaceae belonging to four to five genera, three of which belong to extinct lineages. Eotrigonobalanus and Trigonobalanopsis have stratigraphic ranges from the Eocene to the Miocene and the Pliocene, [...]

To fully understand the evolution of today’s angiosperms, the fossil record of plant families and genera must be used to determine their time of origin and phytogeographic history. As within many angiosperm families, the interrelationships of extant Lythraceae are hard to resolve without sufficient data from the geological past. Here we establish the earliest fossil [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter The palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin is characterised by a diverse spectrum of conifers. Their pollen is mostly well preserved allowing for high taxonomic resolution. Most coniferous taxa belong to the Pinaceae (Abies, Cathaya, Cedrus, Keteleeria, Larix, Picea, Pinus and Tsuga) and the Cupressaceae (Cryptomeria, Glyptostrobus and Sequoia), but pollen [...]

Authors: Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Christian Baal Preliminary studies of the palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin show a relatively rich assemblage of pollen and spores. The palynoflora comprises at least 17 different kinds of spores, representing the Bryophyta (Sphagnum), Lycopodiophyta (Lycopodium, Selaginella), and the Pteridophyta (Dryopteris, Osmunda, Pteris), about 20 different pollen types of conifers [...]

Authors: Thomas Denk, Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A. Símonarson At the end of the nineteenth century, Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (1850–1921), then professor of palaeobotany in Stockholm, planned a major investigation of plant fossils from Iceland. This work was, however, put aside and not revived before his death. What remained was a set of more [...]

Authors: Thomas Denk, Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A. Símonarson This chapter evaluates climatic signals from floras of 11 sedimentary rock formations from Iceland spanning the time interval 15–0.8 Ma. From 15 to 12 Ma, the climate was humid warm temperate probably with hot summers (Cfa climate) as evidenced by the presence of taxodiaceous conifers such [...]

Authors: Thomas Denk, Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A. Símonarson Plants lacking long distance dispersal mechanisms required a functioning land bridge to colonize Iceland, a route provided by the North Atlantic Land Bridge (NALB). During the Cainozoic, the NALB, also referred to as the Thulean route, came into existence in the latest Paleocene and Early Eocene, [...]

Authors: Thomas Denk, Friðgeir Grímsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A. Símonarson The Pleistocene vegetation history of Iceland is closely linked to the onset of large scale northern hemisphere glaciations. The first regional glaciation in Iceland occurred at ca 2.5 Ma (Praetiglian), just before the deposition of the oldest Pleistocene plant-bearing sediments in Iceland (Brekkukambur Formation, 2.4–2.1 Ma). [...]