Friðgeir Grímsson

University of Vienna | UniWien · Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research

Iconic examples of insect pollination have emphasized narrowly specialized pollinator mutualisms such as figs and fig wasps [1] and yuccas and yucca moths [2]. However, recent attention by pollination ecologists has focused on the broad spectra of pollinated plants by generalist pollinators such as bees. Bees have great impact for formulating hypot...

One of the most important trophic interactions today is that between insects and their floral hosts. This biotic association is believed to have been critical to the radiation of flowering plants and many pollinating insect lineages over the last 120 million years (Ma). Trophic interactions among fossil organisms are challenging to study, and most...

This protocol explains how to extract pollen from fossil insects with subsequent descriptions of pollen treatment. We also describe how to document morphological and ultrastructural features with light-microscopy and electron microscopy. It enables a taxonomic assignment of pollen that can be used to interpret flower-insect interactions, foraging a...

Iceland is the only known terrestrial place in the subarctic North Atlantic providing a fairly continuous sedimentary and plant fossil record over the past 15millionyears. While the basic palaeobotanical framework of this pattern has been well established during the last decade, less attention has been paid to the abundant insect traces on fossil l...

Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), originally native to North America, was introduced to Europe in the 19th century through contaminated seed consignments. Since then, this invasive neophyte has rapidly spread, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe. In Austria, ragweed has been established since the 1970ies and has gained significant attention...

An association of eighteen coprolites (specimens 01–18) and one isolated coprolite (specimen 209,210) were found in a vertebrate fossil-rich paleosol at the Gratkorn site (south-eastern Austria; late Middle Miocene). The specimens consist mostly of calcium phosphate (apatite) and a matrix formed by microglobules. Coprolites 01–18 show cylindrical a...

Paleogene flower-insect interactions and paleo-pollination processes are, in general, poorly understood and fossil evidence for such floral and faunal interactions are rarely reported. To shed light on angiosperm flower-insect interactions, we investigated several hundred fossil flowers and insects from the middle Eocene Fossil Lagerstätte of Eckfe...

The Onagraceae or evening-primrose family has a fossil record composed mainly of dispersed pollen that has been discovered in Late Cretaceous to Holocene sediments around the globe. The pollen record suggests the family reached a cosmopolitan distribution during the Eocene. Currently, there is no reliable Onagraceae leaf record, and the meagre meso...

The early to middle Eocene maar lake of Messel is a world-renowned fossil locality. Its oil shale deposits are well-known for their exceptional preservation of vertebrates (e.g., crocodiles, early horses) and invertebrates, especially insects. The makro-and microfossil remains of plants also contributed to providing a more holistic snapshot of this...

Fossilised compressed angiosperm flowers that can be determined in a botanically/systematically meaningful sense are rare in the fossil record. The main reason for this might be the preservation state, i.e., such fossils are in many cases strongly compacted, and can lack diagnostic features essential for proper identification and assignment to exta...

The Late Oligocene to Early Miocene flora of the Ban Pa Kha Subbasin (Li Basin, northern Thailand) provides a record of montane dry tropical oak-pine forests. The rich ensemble of Fagaceae typical of these forests might have existed in the wider region of Southeast Asia since Eocene times and various fossil plant assemblages represented both lowlan...

Many tropical wet forests are species-rich and have relatively even species frequency distributions. But, dominance by a single canopy species can also occur in tropical wet climates and can remain stable for centuries. These are uncommon globally, with the African wet tropics supporting more such communities than the Neotropics or Southeast Asia....

An increasing body of palaeobotanical data demonstrates a series of Pliocene and Pleistocene extirpations and extinctions of plant lineages in western Eurasia, which are believed to have been determined by the climatic properties of their related East Asian and North American sister lineages. We investigated the diversity of a widespread northern h...

Parrotia persica is one of the most notable endemic relict tree species growing in the Hyrcanian forest at the southern Caspian Sea. The recent discovery of sibling species Parrotia subaequalis, occurring in the temperate forests of south-eastern China, offers the opportunity to compare their morphology and ecological preferences and to dig deeper...

During the warm middle Eocene (ca 45 Ma), the Napartulik area (also called “the Geodetic Hills”), Axel Heiberg Island, northern Canada (Nunavut), was vegetated with mixed broad-leaved deciduous angiosperm and evergreen conifer forests over extensive floodplain and forested wetland habitats. Massive organic rich sedimentary successions and encapsula...

The Gleisdorf Formation (Fm.) deposits in the clay pit at Gratkorn, Styria, Austria, are dated to 12.2–12 Ma, and are of late middle Miocene age (late Serravallian or Sarmatian). To reconstruct the paleovegetation and estimate the paleoclimate at this important vertebrate site, the palynoflora close to the boundary between the vertebrate-bearing la...

The Eocene to Oligocene of Germany is known for its fossil Lagerstätten. Countless records of extraordinary fossils, from sites such as Messel, Eckfeld, and Enspel, showing exceptional preservation represent an abundance of animals and plants. Among these records are hundreds of angiosperm flowers that have not yet been affiliated taxonomically. Ad...

Examination of the gut content from a fossil giant tadpole (> 15 cm) displays that it predominantly derived from airborne pollen of spruce (Picea) trees. Gut analyses of extant tadpoles demonstrate a broad spectrum of food, including algae, protista, protozoa, macrophytes, rotifers, crustaceans, and pollen. Therefore, living tadpoles seem to be ind...

A new genus and species of fossil wood wasp is described and figured from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, representing the first occurrence of the family Xiphydriidae in the fossil record. Paraxiphydria resinata gen. et sp. nov. exhibits typical apomorphies of the family including a generally cylindrical body, elongate neck and dome-shaped head. Nonet...

The fossil record of Lythrum is scarce and every new find brings an extra piece of the puzzle to the obscure phytogeographic history of this genus. Lythrum pollen is unique and has the potential to be recognized in palynological assemblages. Therefore, the few pre-Holocene fossil records are all pollen described from North America, Russia, and Euro...

Palm and palm-like (PPL) taxa have been widely reported at low-mid latitudes in Paleogene pollen assemblages. Yet their occurrence in the Paleogene of Myanmar remains poorly documented. Here we investigate the morphology of PPL pollen along a middle to upper Eocene sedimentary sequence in the Central Myanmar Basin and discuss their nearest living r...

This chapter reviews Cenozoic plant assemblages from the sub-arctic North Atlantic region and their biogeographic implications. Engler's hypothesis about the ‘Arcto-Tertiary element’ remains a fundamental hypothesis about the origin of northern temperate tree genera. The book reviews previous work on the plant fossil record from Paleocene to Pleist...

Iceland is known as “the land of fire and ice”. Those who come to know this country intimately, however, can see that even the island’s inhabitants are full of fire. They are hearty, honest, and proud of their ancestors. This book is dedicated to the Icelandic men and women involved in prospecting and mining of Icelandic coal deposits during the Fi...

Fossil pollen believed to be related to extant Hagenia abyssinica were discovered in the early Miocene (21.73 Ma) Mush Valley paleoflora, Ethiopia, Africa. Both the fossil and extant pollen grains of H. abyssinica were examined with combined light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy to compare the pollen a...

Kemiklitepe is a well-known locality with four recognised fossiliferous horizons, KTA to KTD, which have yielded a plethora of mammalian remains. Previous taxonomic studies indicate the presence of three giraffid taxa: Samotherium major and Palaeotragus rouenii from the uppermost three horizons, KTA, KTB and KTC, as well as Palaeotragus rouenii and...

Large areas of Earth’s continents were covered by temperate forests before the dramatic increase of the human population in the past two millennia. Prior to human expansion, temperate forests were more extensive in the Neogene (23–2.6 Ma) when climate at the middle latitudes was slightly warmer and more equable than at the present. These temperate...

In the Palaeogene, pollen assemblages at low and mid latitudes are characterized by abundant palm and palm-like (PPL) taxa. Although these taxa have been widely reported, their occurrence in the Palaeogene of Myanmar remains poorly documented. Here we report on the morphology of PPL pollen along a middle to upper Eocene sedimentary sequence in cent...

Recent excavations at the Gračanica coal mine (Bugojno Basin, Bosnia-Herzegovina) have unearthed numerous skeletal parts of fossil vertebrates, including a noteworthy collection of mammalian remains. Previous palaeoecological investigations of the Dinarides Lake System were established using stratigraphical, palaeofloral, and malacological data. Ho...

The continued investigation of the middle Miocene palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin reveals numerous additional angiosperm taxa. The Myrtales to Ericales pollen record documented here comprises 46 different taxa belonging to Onagraceae (Ludwigia), Ericaceae (Craigia, Reevesia, Tilia), Anacardiaceae (Pistacia), Rutaceae (Zanthoxylum), Sapindaceae...

An advanced protocol to prepare single extant and fossil pollen grains for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis allows for the fast recovery of data on the ultrastructure of pollen/spores. The protocol is easy to apply and less time consuming than previous methods. The ‘loss’ of pollen grains and pollen that is ‘difficult to locate’ with...

Palaeontologists have known about the fossiliferous site at Thermopigi (Central Macedonia, N. Greece) for the past two decades. Following the first field campaigns a wealth of new information on the overall geology, taphonomy and palaeontology of the site became available. With more than 1300 fossils, representing at least 20 mammalian species, The...

Miocene paleoecology of East Africa has implications for human origins and understanding the vicariant legacy forests found today on either side of the East African Rift. Fossil leaves preserved in 21.73 million year old lacustrine sediments from the Mush Valley, Ethiopia, provide a unique opportunity to investigate forest composition and dominance...

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 documented. New comprehensive descriptions, comparisons and metric an...

Alcicephalus neumayri is a large-sized giraffid, which is mostly known from its type locality, Maragheh, Iran. The taxon has also been reported from North China and it is in fact the most abundant giraffid known from the eastern outskirts of the Pikermian biome. Reassessment of previously studied material from the fossiliferous site at Kavakdere, r...

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 extant and fossil material using light microscopy only. Fossil pollen of the family have been described from the Paleogene of America, Antarctica, Au...

Fossil palm pollen referred to genera such as Longapertites, Spinizonocolpites, Palmaepollenites, and Dicolpopollis, and the palm-like Proxapertites had a very widespread distribution during the Paleogene. Here we investigate the fossil palm pollen within the composition of the latest middle to earliest late Eocene Yaw Formation in the Kalewa regio...

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 of two new extinct species of the small genus, Sclerosperma (Arecoideae), from a late Oligocene (27–28 Ma) stratum exposed along the G...

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). The pollen morphology suggests that S. mannii and S. walkeri...

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 of two new extinct species of the small genus, Sclerosperma (Arecoideae), from a late Oligocene (27–28 Ma) stratum exposed along the G...

This open access book offers a fully illustrated compendium of glossary 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. An illustrated handbook,” published in 2009. This second edition, titled “Illustrated Pollen Terminology” s...

pollen class: artificial grouping of pollen grains that share one or more distinctive characters

angulaperturate: pollen grain with an angular outline where the apertures are located at the angles

monad: unit consisting of a single pollen grain

Pollen is source and transport unit for the male gametes (or their progenitor cell). The unicellular pollen grain represents the microspore of seed plants, the multicellular pollen grain the male gametophytic generation. The development of a pollen grain includes microsporogenesis and microgametogenesis (Figs. 1 and 2, Gomez et al. 2015; Keijzer an...

For the description of a pollen grain, a number of features are used including size, polarity and shape, aperture condition, ornamentation, and pollen wall structure. Additional and often more specialized features depend on the group of plants under study, Gymnosperms (Cycadales, Ginkgoales, Pinales, Gnetales) vs. Angiosperms (magnoliids, monocots,...

tectum/tectate: outer more or less continuous ektexine layer; tectum condition can be eutectate or semitectate

Multiple methods and techniques should be used when investigating pollen grains in order to provide comprehensive and accurate information about pollen morphology and ultrastructure (see also “Misinterpretations in Palynology”). The preparation methods used depend on the material to be studied, if the pollen grains are to be obtained from recent fl...

All important terms in palynology are listed here and explained. Terms figured in chapter “Illustrated Pollen Terms” are indicated by bold page numbers. Non-recommended terms are only provided with an explanatory comment. For consistency, phrases are standardized, for example, features of ornamentation are stereotypically defined as “pollen wall wi...

The study of pollen should encompass all structural and ornamental aspects of the grain. Pollen morphology is studied using LM and SEM and is important to visualize the general features of a pollen grain, including, e.g., symmetry, shape, size, aperture number and location, as well as ornamentation. TEM investigations are used to highlight the stra...

outline: describes the contour of pollen grains in polar and/or equatorial view

areola/areolate: insular ornamentation element

The description of pollen ornamentation depends on three major parameters (1) the interpretations of the palynologist (which are subjective), (2) the pollen terminology applied, and (3) the magnification, resolution, and methods used.

Palynology is the science of palynomorphs, a general term for all entities found in palynological preparations (e.g., pollen, spores, cysts, diatoms). A dominating object of the palynomorph spectrum is the pollen grain. The term palynology was coined by Hyde and Williams (1955; Fig. 1). It is a combination of the Greek verb paluno (пαλύνω, “I strew...

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 framework based...

An ongoing re-investigation of the early Miocene Saldanha Bay (South Africa) palynoflora, using combined light and scanning electron microscopy (single grain method), is revealing several pollen types new to the African fossil record. One of the elements identified is Loranthaceae pollen. These grains represent the first and only fossil record of L...