Nansen spent a few days at Cape Flora on Franz Josef Land, where he met Frederick Jackson’s expedition group. Together with the group’s geologist, Nansen mapped the area and collected a number of fossils and rock samples. These fossils were sent to the German geologist Josef F. Pompeckj, who published the findings in 1900.
The collections at the Natural History Museum contain a number of objects that were collected on Nansen’s expedition across the Arctic Ocean in 1893–96. The paleontological collection contains a number of fossils, including ammonites, which are an extinct group of octopuses with an outer shell. These types of fossils are very important for dating and correlating sedimentary rocks.
Franz Josef Land’s geology was only partially investigated before Nansen arrived in the archipelago, and the results of the expedition have been frequently cited. The German geologist Josef F. Pompeckj described new species from Nansen’s collection, including the species Cadoceras nanseni and Pseudomonotis jacksoni – names that clearly emphasise Nansen’s and Jackson’s importance in Arctic exploration.
New objectives and methods in paleontological research have cast new light on the material in recent years. There is great interest in the geology of the High North, on both the Norwegian and Russian continental shelves. Nansen’s samples have been used in micropaleontological investigations as microalgae, spores and pollen are used to date the sedimentary layers.
About the object
Type of object: Fossil
Material: Fossil (stone)
Place of origin: Franz-Josef Land, Russia
Date of collection: 14th July, 1896
Current location: The Natural History Museum’s paleontological collection (collection number A30254)
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Nansen, Fridtjof. Fram over Polhavet. Den norske polarfærd 1893–1896. Kristiania: Aschehoug, 1897.
Pompeckj, J. F. “The Jurassic Fauna of Cape Flora”. In The Norwegian North Polar Expidition 1893-96. Scientific results, Vol. I, edited by Fridtjof Nansen, 33-147. Kristiania: Dybwad, 1900.
Smelror, Morten. “Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous palynomorph assemblages from Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, Arctic USSR”. In Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift 66, nr. 2 (1986): 107–119.
Smelror, Morten. “Bathonian and Callovian (Middle Jurassic) dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs from Franz Josef Land, Arctic Soviet”. In Polar Research 5, nr. 2 (1987): 221-238.
Smelror, Morten. En sten løftet fra mitt hjerte. En reise over Polhavet i Nansens og Frams geologiske fotefar. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press, 2011.
Do you have questions or comments to the text? Contact Hans Arne Nakrem.