Cenozoic Vegetation and Phytogeography of the Sub-arctic North Atlantic
- Author(s)
- Fridgeir Grimsson, Thomas Denk, Reinhard Zetter
- Abstract
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 Pleistocene sedimentary formations of the sub-arctic North Atlantic region. This includes Paleogene plant assemblages from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Scotland, as well as Neogene floras from Iceland. The Faroe Islands are patchy sub-aerial remnants of a extensive Paleogene lava sequence that is considered part of the Brito-Arctic Igneous Province. In his classic paper from 1985, Tiffney mentions plant genera that are shared between the early Miocene Brandon Lignite Flora of eastern North America and Paleogene and Neogene floras of western Eurasia to illustrate the importance of the North Atlantic Land Bridge. The improved understanding of the history of the NALB is crucial for basic biogeographic assumptions.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Palaeontology, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
- Pages
- 29-49
- No. of pages
- 21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118561461.ch2
- Publication date
- 2021
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105117 Palaeobotany, 106008 Botany, 105118 Palaeontology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/cenozoic-vegetation-and-phytogeography-of-the-subarctic-north-atlantic(97c83828-e24a-4bbf-9adf-da3a6979d454).html