Our research and teaching are deeply rooted in organismal biology, i.e. the study of structure, function, and evolution at the level of the organism. We focus on questions of plant diversity – How have key structural features such as the angiosperm flower evolved? How is morphological diversity distributed among taxa? How are different structural features correlated with one another? Why are certain morphologies common and have evolved repeatedly while others are rare? We address these and related questions across a broad range of taxa and apply state-of-the art techniques as well as novel theoretical approaches to answer them.
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Online-article at the University of Vienna: "How flowers adapt to their pollinators"
Recent Publications 2020-2022
2022
Gao, J., Engel, M. S., Grimsson, F., Gu, L., Ren, D., & Gao, T-P. (2022). The first xiphydriid wood wasp in Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera: Xiphydriidae) and a potential association with Cycadales. Fossil record, 24(2), 445-453. doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-445-2022
Vieira, M., Zetter, R., Coiro, M., & Grimsson, F. (2022). Pliocene Lythrum (loosestrife, Lythraceae) pollen from Portugal and the Neogene establishment of European lineages. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 296. doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2021.104548
Bao, T., Wedmann, S., Grímsson, F., Beutel, R. G., Seyfullah, L., Bao, L., & Jarzembowski, E. A. (2022). Was the kateretid beetle Pelretes really a Cretaceous angiosperm pollinator? Nature Plants, 8, 38–40. doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01044-3
2021
Asenbaum, J., Schäffler, I., Etl, F., Dötterl, S., Schönenberger, J., & Chartier, M. (2021). Comparative Pollination Ecology of Five European Euphorbia Species. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 182(9), 763-777. doi.org/10.1086/715759
Dellinger, A., Paun, O., Baar, J., Temsch, E., Fernandez-Fernandez, DM., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Population structure in Neotropical plants: integrating pollination biology, topography and climatic niches. Authorea Preprints. doi.org/10.22541/au.163775481.19082964/v1
Artuso, S., Gamisch, A., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Comes, H. P. (2021). Evidence for selectively constrained 3D flower shape evolution in a Late Miocene clade of Malagasy Bulbophyllum orchids. New Phytologist, 232(2), 853-867. doi.org/10.1111/nph.17643
Schindler, F., Fragner, L., Herpell, J. B., Berger, A., Brenner, M., Tischler, S., Bellaire, A., Schoenenberger, J., Li, W., Sun, X., Schinnerl, J., Brecker, L., & Weckwerth, W. (2021). Dissecting Metabolism of Leaf Nodules in Ardisia crenata and Psychotria punctata. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 8, [683671]. doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2021.683671
Bochorny, T., Bacci, L. F., Dellinger, A. S., Michelangeli, F. A., Goldenberg, R., & Brito, V. L. G. (2021). Connective appendages in Huberia bradeana (Melastomataceae) affect pollen release during buzz pollination. Plant Biology, 23(4), 556-563. doi.org/10.1111/plb.13244
Dellinger, A. S., Pérez-Barrales, R., Michelangeli, F. A., Penneys, D. S., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Low bee visitation rates explain pollinator shifts to vertebrates in tropical mountains. New Phytologist, 231(2), 864-877. doi.org/10.1111/nph.17390
Wedmann, S., Hörnschemeyer, T., Engel, M. S., Zetter, R., & Grimsson, F. (2021). The last meal of an Eocene pollen-feeding fly. Current Biology, 31(9), 2020-2026.e4. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.025
Dellinger, A. S., Artuso, S., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Stamen dimorphism in bird-pollinated flowers – investigating alternative hypotheses on the evolution of heteranthery. Evolution. doi.org/10.1111/evo.14260
Chartier, M., von Balthazar-Schönenberger, A. M. L., Sontag, S., Löfstrand, S., Palme, T., Jabbour, F., Sauquet, H., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Global patterns and a latitudinal gradient of flower disparity: perspectives from the angiosperm order Ericales. New Phytologist, 230(2), 821-831. doi.org/10.1111/nph.17195
Quan, Y., Ahmed, S. A., Menezes da Silva, N., Al-Hatmi, A. M. S., Mayer, V., Deng, S., Kang, Y., Sybren de Hoog, G., & Shi, D. (2021). Novel black yeast-like species in chaetothyriales with ant-associated life styles. Fungal Biology, 125(4), 276-284. doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2020.11.006
Singh, A., Mayer, V., Zytynska, S. E., Hesse, B., & Weisser, W. W. (2021). The Efficiency of Plant Defense: Aphid Pest Pressure Does Not Alter Production of Food Rewards by Okra Plants in Ant Presence. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, 1-13. [627570]. doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.627570
Kanduth, L., Chartier, M., Schönenberger, J., & Dellinger, A. S. (2021). Red and white clover provide food resources for honeybees and wild bees in urban environments. Nordic Journal of Botany, 39(3), 1-11. doi.org/10.1111/njb.03005
Grimsson, F., Denk, T., & Zetter, R. (2021). Cenozoic Vegetation and Phytogeography of the Sub-arctic North Atlantic. In E. Panagiotakopulu, & J. P. Sadler (Eds.), Biogeography in the Sub‐Arctic: The Past and Future of North Atlantic Biota (1 ed., pp. 29-49). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.. doi.org/10.1002/9781118561461.ch2
Chartier, M. (2021). Clues to Columbine Evolution in Aquilegia laramiensis (Laramie columbine). Castilleja: Publication of the Wyoming Native Plant Society, 40(3), 1,7. www.wynps.org/wp-content/uploads/Oct2021_Castilleja_5Oct2021.pdf
Leme, F. M., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Teixeira, S. P. (2021). Floral morphogenesis of Celtis species: implications for breeding system and reduced floral structure. American Journal of Botany: the journal for all plant biologists, 108(9), 1595-1611. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1724
Grimsson, F., Ulrich, S., Coiro, M., Graham, S. A., Jacobs, B. F., Currano, E. D., Xafis, A., & Zetter, R. (2021). Hagenia from the early Miocene of Ethiopia: Evidence for possible niche evolution? Ecology and Evolution, 11(10), 5164-5186. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7408
Grimsson, F., Ulrich, S., Zetter, R., Hörnschemeyer, T., Engel, M. S., & Wedmann, S. (2021). How to extract and analyze pollen from internal organs and exoskeletons of fossil insects? STAR Protocols, 2(4). doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100923
Xafis, A., Mayda, S., Alçiçek, C. M., Kaya, T., Halaçlar, K., Grimsson, F., & Nagel, D. (2021). Large giraffids (Mammalia, Ruminantia) from the new late Miocene fossiliferous locality of Kemiklitepe-E (Western Anatolia, Turkey). Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 101, 853–867. doi.org/10.1007/s12549-020-00433-4
Pokorny, R., Fialová, V., Grimsson, F., & Koutecky, V. (2021). Mineral Resources in Iceland: Coal mining. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Valverde-Espinoza, J. M., Chacon-Madrigal, E., Alvarado-Rodríguez, O., & Dellinger, A. S. (2021). The predictive power of pollination syndromes: Passerine pollination in heterantherous Meriania macrophylla (Benth.) Triana (Melastomataceae). Ecology and Evolution, 11(20), 13668-13677. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8140
Reich, D., Gutermann, W., Bardy, K., Rainer, H., Raus, T., Sonnleitner, M., Tan, K., & Lachmayer, M. (2021). The type specimens in Eugen von Halácsy´s Herbarium Graecum. Phytotaxa, 493(1), 001-156. doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.493.1.1
Wolcott, K. A., Chomicki, G., Staedler, Y. M., Wasylikowa, K., Nesbitt, M., Schönenberger, J., & Renner, S. S. (2021). Three-dimensional X-ray-computed tomography of 3300- to 6000-year-old Citrullus seeds from Libya and Egypt compared to extant seeds throws doubts on species assignments. Plants, People, Planet, 1-9. doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10220
Mayer, V. E., de Hoog, S., Cristescu, S. M., Vera, L., & Prenafeta-Boldú, F. X. (2021). Volatile Organic Compounds in the Azteca/Cecropia Ant-Plant Symbiosis and the Role of Black Fungi. Journal of Fungi, 7(10), [836]. doi.org/10.3390/jof7100836
2020
Hrusevar, D., Bakrac, K., Miko, S., Ilijanic, N., Hasan, O., Mamic, M., Puljak, T., Vucic, A., Malovec, K. H., Weber, M., & Mitic, B. (2020). Environmental history in Central Croatia for the last two millennia - vegetation, fire and hydrological changes under climate and human impact. Prilozi instituta za arheologiju u zagrebu, 37, 117-164. doi.org/10.33254/piaz.37.5
Schönenberger, J., von Balthazar-Schönenberger, A. M. L., Lopez Martinez, A., Albert, B., Prieu, C., Magallon, S., & Sauquet, H. (2020). Phylogenetic analysis of fossil flowers using an angiosperm-wide data set: proof-of-concept and challenges ahead. American Journal of Botany: the journal for all plant biologists, 107(10), 1433-1448. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1538
Huang, H., Morley, R., Licht, A., Dupont-Nivet, G., Grimsson, F., Zetter, R., Westerweel, J., Win, Z., Aung, D. W., & Hoorn, C. (2020). Eocene palms from central Myanmar in a South-East Asian and global perspective: evidence from the palynological record. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 194(2), 177-206. doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boaa038
Xafis, A., Saarinen, J., Bastl, K., Nagel, D., & Grímsson, F. (2020). Palaeodietary traits of large mammals from the middle Miocene of Gračanica (Bugojno Basin, Bosnia-Herzegovina). Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 100, 457–477. doi.org/10.1007/s12549-020-00435-2