Two hundred million years ago, the land that became southern Sweden was covered in lush vegetation where crocodiles and dinosaurs roamed, an era palaeontologist Vivi Vajda and her team have set out to reconstruct.
In a wing of the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, the researcher recently welcomed AFP to her office, scattered with books and fossil samples.
Sitting behind her microscope, Vajda examined specimens collected in Sweden's southern Skane province, projecting them onto the wall.
"This is a pollen sample that I collected in the field", she said, pointing to brown and yellow spots, round and rectangular in shape.
Most Jurassic-era fossils found in Sweden have been discovered in Skane, preserved thanks to deep cracks in the ground that protected them from ice ages that erased traces elsewhere.
"I'm interested in what forests there were during the Jurassic period, so when I see a pollen grain, I actually see the tree and the ecosystem in front of me", she said.
The idea of showing the public what appeared in her mind when studying fossils gradually took shape during her fieldwork.
"I really felt that we lacked a book with illustrations that actually shows scientifically what it looked like in Sweden 200 to 100 million years ago", Vajda explained.
With her team, she set out to reconstruct entire ecosystems from the period. The illustrations were published in a book in October 2025.
Starting from fossil fragments — such as footprints, teeth, or leaves — the researchers identified species and pieced them together with an illustrator to recreate a Jurassic ecosystem.
"I was surprised about the biodiversity, because it was the first time we actually put all the animals and plants together in one ecosystem", she said.
The result likely reflects what life looked like, "because we find them in the same area, within a few hundred metres of rock".
"It was surprising to see such lush vegetation", she noted.
The dense greenery included ferns, primitive conifers and marsh plants — a far cry from today's Scandinavian landscapes.
The fossils provide "only a snapshot of one time interval... a window into the past", she said.
"But we can compare older and younger fossils to see how climate change and biodiversity evolved over time".
"It's always nice to see what it actually looked like and make the plants and animals come to life". — AFP
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