Abstract The 400 km long transect through Ellesmere Island is located perpendicular to the North American continental margin between the Arctic Ocean in the NNW and the Greenland–Canadian Shield in the SSE. It provides an insight into the structural architecture and tectonic history of the upper parts of the continental crust. The northernmost segment of the transect is dominated by the composite Pearya Terrane, which amalgamated with the Laurentian margin during the Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous Ellesmerian Orogeny. The Neoproterozoic to Devonian Franklinian Basin is exposed south of the terrane boundary and most probably overlies the crystalline basement of the Greenland–Canadian Shield. The structures along the transect in this area are dominated by kilometre-scale Ellesmerian folding of the Franklinian Basin deposits above a deep-seated detachment, which is suggested to be located at the boundary between the basement of the Canadian Shield and the overlying >8 km thick Franklinian Basin. Following the development of the Late Mississippian–Palaeogene Sverdrup Basin, the complex Eurekan deformation reactivated Ellesmerian thrust faults and probably parts of the associated deep-seated detachment. In addition, large Eurekan strike-slip faults affected and displaced pre-Eocene deposits and tectonic structures, particularly in the northern part of the transect. Supplementary material: The complete transect (Segment 1 to 5) through Ellesmere Island between the Arctic Ocean in the NNW and Kane Basin in the SSE is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3783608

Abstract Ole Worm, Professor of Medicine at Copenhagen University 1624–1654, collected natural objects and artefacts with a view to letting students learn through observation and the touch of real things. Among the objects were fossils. Through Worm’s correspondence from 1607 to 1654, his growing understanding of petrifaction and petrifactions (fossilization and fossils) and its circumstantial background in the Nordic Renaissance has been investigated. Worm studied medicine with anatomy, botany and (iatro)chemistry at European universities. He began as Professor Pædagogicus and practising physician in Copenhagen in 1613 and he pursued interests in botany and in Nordic philology supported by King Christian IV. Objects for demonstrative instruction were obtained through his correspondents and were arranged systematically in Worm’s museum. The first fossils were identified chemically as petrified mollusc shells and wood, but without attention to species and original environment. With limited zoological knowledge and little field experience, but well trained in anatomical observation and description, and well read, Worm developed his understanding of fossils. He compared sharks’ teeth and glossopetrae , adding evidence to former comparisons. Christian orthodoxy was a barrier to geological and evolutionary thinking. Worm rejected superstition and prepared the way for the scientific comprehension of fossils in the Nordic cultural sphere.