Else Marie Friis (born 18 June 1947) is a Danish botanist and
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
. She is Professor Emerita in the Department of Geoscience at Aarhus University. Her work has been fundamental in the phylogenetic analysis of
angiosperms
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants ...
, with widespread application to reproductive biology.
Education and early life
The daughter of a bookseller Poul Friis and Marie Møller, she was born in
Holstebro
Holstebro is the main town in Holstebro Municipality, Denmark. The town, bisected by ''Storåen'' ("The Large Creek") and has a population of 36,489 (1 January 2022).Skive, graduating from local school Viborg Katedralskole in 1966. She worked as an au-pair in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
for a year, becoming interested in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
whilst her brother Henrik was a student in the subject. This inspired her to become an assistant teacher in
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
and geology in 1971.
In 1975 she earned a
Magister's degree
A magister degree (also magistar, female form: magistra; from la, magister, "teacher") is an academic degree used in various systems of higher education.
The magister degree arose in medieval universities in Europe and was originally equal to the ...
in science and in 1980 a
Licentiate's degree
A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels.
It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin Ame ...
Her area of interest is the reproductive biology, phylogeny and palaeoecology of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s based on plant reproductive organs from the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
period.
Early on in her career she began research into lignite, being involved in fieldwork in the lignite mines in Central
Jutland
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
from 1968 to 1972. She was interested in the ecology and climate of
Denmark
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in the middle
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
, writing her Licentiate thesis on the subject. She became interested in discovering whether early fossil flowering plants could be identified. Fossilised pollen discovered in the 1960s had identified that flowering plants originated during the Cretaceous, but the nature of the plants themselves remained unknown. Most parts of plants, especially the flowers that are needed to identify species, are made of very delicate tissue that is unlikely to become fossilised. It was also considered that the first flowers were likely to be large structures like most modern flowers, adding to the likelihood that they would not become fossilised. The first Cretaceous flower was found by Bruce H. Tiffney in the 1970s in sediment from Martha's Vineyard in the USA, but was seen as an exceptional discovery. Friis and her collaborators made the technical decision to seek very small pieces of charcoal within likely soft rocks through sieving the crumbled sediment, and then using a microscope to view the resulting fragments. This was based on the hypothesis that charcoal formed during natural fires would be much more likely to be preserved intact. In this way she found very small flowers, only a few millimetres in length, that were around 80 million years old. Through her research network that included Peter Crane and Kaj Pedersen, she collaborated with Annie Skarby to locate and identify many early Cretaceous flowers from southern Sweden. In further sediments in the USA and Portugal they were able to local fossilised charcoal flowers that were 120 million years old, extending the origin of flowering plants to earlier in the Cretaceous. These appeared to belong to the
Chloranthaceae
Chloranthaceae is a family of flowering plants (angiosperms), the only family in the order Chloranthales. It is not closely related to any other family of flowering plants, and is among the early-diverging lineages in the angiosperms. They are ...
, a group that turned out to be a major part of the flora at that time but is now only represented by a few species. The technique was subsequently adopted by others to find ancient flowers in sediments around the world.
From 1980 to 1981 she was in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
as a British Council Research Scholar, switching research interests following the co-discovery with Swedish scientist Annie Skarby of rare fossilised flowers from the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
period that were so well preserved that they could be placed within the modern order
Saxifragales
The Saxifragales (saxifrages) are an order of flowering plants (Angiosperms). They are an extremely diverse group of plants which include trees, shrubs, perennial herbs, succulent and aquatic plants. The degree of diversity in terms of vegeta ...
.
She returned to Aarhus University in 1981, co-publishing a book "The Origins of Angiosperms and Their Biological Consequences" in 1987. She became the head of palaeobotany at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm later that year. During her career she has characterised and named over 200 species of fossil flowering plants.
In 1999 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
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Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
{{Infobox organization
, name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
, full_name =
, native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
, native_name_lang =
, logo = Royal ...
*
Royal Swedish Academy of Science
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Unive ...
*
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...
and a
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Foreign Member of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...
She has received the:
* Hans Gram Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1985
* Nils Rosén Linné Prize in botany from the Royal Physiographic Society, Sweden in 1992
* Rolf Dahlgren Prize in botany from the Royal Physiographic Society, Sweden in 2005
* Denmark's Geology Prize 2011 with Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
* Linnaeus gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2014
* Knight 1st Class of the
Order of the Polar Star
The Royal Order of the Polar Star ( Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim.
The Order of t ...
In addition, she was named Geologist of the year in 2005 by the Swedish Association of Scientists.