She is also known for originating with her husband Alexander Tollmann a thoroughly documented theory of the evolution of human legend and social structures as a result of a massive impact event which struck multiple points on earth.
However, she shifted her focus to study geology, paleontology and petrography in Vienna under the tutelage of Othmar Kühn, Felix Machachki, Hans Wieseneder and Leopold Kober.
For one example, she explained the correspondence of observably similar rock bodies in Alpine regions and Chine in the Triassic period as a function of global fluctuations in sea level.
[1] The collection primarily reflects Edith Kristan-Tollmann's work on Foraminifera from the Triassic and Lower Jurassic and also contains a small amount of material published by her husband Alexander on the Neogene of Austria (full publication list for AT in Lein, 2007).
Published foraminifera include the genera Variostoma, Diplotremina, Plagiostomella, Duostomina, Asymmetrina from the Triassic (1960) and Scyphodon, Callonina and Nephrosphaera from the Silurian of Austria (1971) and numerous new species.
Although early work focused on the Alps and Austria, later published material embraced the Triassic of Iran, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, with discussions of taxonomy and distribution patterns throughout Tethys.
A number of publications cite material as deposited in 'Sammlung Kristan-Tollmann, Geologisches Institut der Universität Wien' but this is not correct and the specimens were, in fact, retained as a private collection.
[2] The pair followed up this publication with a book on the same subject in 1993, Und die Sintflut gab es doch: vom Mythos zur historischen Wahrheit (And The Flood Did Exist: From the Myth to the Historical Truth), which became a bestseller in Austria and Germany.
The book attributes to this disaster, with has become known as Tollmann's hypothetical bolide, the origin of priesthood (as a person who facilitates sacrifices to the gods), world religions, the Christian Genesis flood narrative, the myth of Atlantis and many other things.
In Und die Sintflut gab es doch, they also warn against exposure to the numerous nuclear power plants around the world, especially with regard to geological (earthquake) and impact risks.