Fifty million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was a warm sea, bounded by lush vegetation of the warm-temperate shores of Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Wind and storms were rare because Atlantic weather systems had not developed but, as today, polar day length added a hostile element to this otherwise tranquil climate.
With the aid of scientists from all the countries close to the Arctic Circle, this book describes the palaeontology, the statistical analysis of vegetational features, comparisons with atmospheric, marine, and geological features and some of the first models of plant migration developed from newly constructed databases.

Section 1: Introduction

Towards a Review of Tertiary Palacobotany in the Boreal Realm
Fossil Plants as Palaeoenvironmental Indicators
Section 2: The Atmosphere, Tectonics and the Marine Realm
Palaeo-Ecophysiological Studies on Cretaceous and Tertiary Fossil Floras
Cenozoic Tectono-Magmatic Events in the North Atlantic: Potential Palaeo-Environmental Implications
Cenozoic Dinoflagellate Palaeoecology Elucidated, and Used for Marine-Terrestrial Biological Correlation
Late Eocene-Oligocene Dinoflagellate Provincialism in the North Atlantic Ocean
Dinoflagellate Cysts and Climate Change Through the Neogene
Section 3: Comparisons with other Evidence
Comparison of Palaeo Data Based on Plant and Foraminiferal Evidence from the Cenozoic of Northeast Asia (Koryak Hills, Kamchatka)
Tertiary Climate Changes in the Far East Based on Palaeofloristic and Palaeomagnetic Data
Section 4: Palaeobotanical Evidence
A Review of Late Cretaceous Floras and Climates of Arctic Russia
Late Cretaceous Artic Platanoids and High Latitude Climate
Circum-Arctic Plant Fossils and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Transition
Early Tertiary Vegetation of Arctic Canada and Its Relevance to Paleoclimatic Interpretation
Two Conifers - Tetraclinis Mast. (Cupressaceae) and Metasequoia Miki (Taxodiaceae) - Relicts or Palaeoclimatic Indicators of the Past
The Palaeogene Flora of Spitsbergen: Implications for Arcto-Tertiary Climatostratigraphy
Alaskan Palaeogene Climates as Inferred from the Clamp Database
Invasion of Arcto-Tertiary Elements in the Paleogene of Central Europe
Connecting Links Between the Arctic Paleocene and European Tertiary Floras
An Estimate of the Early Tertiary Paleoclimate of the Southern Arctic
The Fossil of the Paleogene Climatic Optimun in NorthEastern Asia
Some Early Paleocene Species from western Kamchatka
Migrations and Evolution: Computerised Maps from Computerised Data
Floristic Changes in the Areas Surrounding the Paratethys During Neogene Time
Some Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene Pollen Profiles from Poland
Section 5: A Challenge and the Future
Arcto-Tertiary '93 : Perspectives and Prospects
Plans for Further International Cooperation.