Else Marie Friis

The recognition by Professor Friis that exquisitely preserved fossil flowers are widespread in the Cretaceous paleontological record revolutionized studies of the history of plant life. The occurrence of abundant fossil flowers, and the structural information that could be obtained from them, was something that had not previously been imagined. Professor Friis has demonstrated remarkable consistency between the pattern of early angiosperm evolution inferred from the fossil record and from modern phylogenetic studies using molecular techniques. Her discoveries are also the primary means by which molecular clocks focused on the deeper divergences of angiosperm phylogeny can be calibrated.