The Polar flora
Thanks to historical expeditions, the department has large amounts of fossils from Antarctica and from various parts of the Arctic (Greenland, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya and several other places). These collections come from areas that are very inaccessible and are, therefore, of immense scientific value.
Our polar flora is unique and includes around 25,000 plant fossils from Spitsbergen, Greenland, Iceland and Bear Island, among other places. They represent a time interval from the dawn of plants on land over 400 million years ago during the Devonian period to the relatively modern floras of the Oligocene (25 million years ago). These plant fossils are widely used in research on paleoclimate and biodiversity patterns spanning millions of years.
The image at the top of the page shows a leaf of Acer crenatifolium (S087458) from the Miocene of Iceland. You can see this particular specimen in the museum's public exhibitions. Photo: T. Wappler.