Else Marie Friis studies the evolutionary history of plants with focus on early angiosperms, their diversification through time and the vegetational context of angiosperm radiation during the Cretaceous (144-65 million years ago).
Her work together with her long-term collaborator, K.R. Pedersen and P.R. Crane FRS, has generated a wealth of new data critical for more accurate systematic and phylogenetic analyses of early angiosperms integrating extant and extinct taxa. The results are also of broader significance for understanding reproductive biology and ecology of early angiosperms including embryo size and tissues related to resource allocations during embryo development.
Else Marie was trained as a geologist and botanist at Aarhus University, Denmark. 1987-2015 she was professor of palaeobotany and head of department of palaeobotany/palaeobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. She is now professor emerita at the Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, and at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. She is member of several academies and received in 2015 the Royal Order of the Polar Star, Sweden.
Professional position
- Emeritus Professor, Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History
- Emeritus Professor, Department of Geoscience, University of Aarhus
Subject groups
- Earth and environmental sciences
Geology
- Organismal biology, evolution and ecology
Evolution, Plant sciences / botany, Taxonomy and systematics
