Nova Scotia/Newfoundland

Canada, July 13th-22nd, 2024

 

 

July 13th- Arrived in Halifax

July 14th- Visited Joggins Fossil Cliffs

July 15th-Visited Blue Beach

July 16th-Visited Cape Breton Island, Drove the Cabet Trail

July 17th- Visited Cape Breton Fossil Center

July 18th- Flew to St John's Newfoundland

July 19th-Visited Mistaken Point

July 20th-Whale and Puffin Tour, Hiked East Coast Trail to North head Lighthouse

July 21st- Hiked the Pouch Cove Trail to Shoe Cove

July22nd- Returned Home

 

 

This vacation had been planned for two years but had to be postponed last summer because my father became ill. We had several goals in mind. One was to have a fabulous vacation and visit a place neither of us had ever been. We enjoyed the spectacular Maritime scenery, hiked amazing trails alongside the wild and rugged shorelines where you could travel miles without any sign of civilization. The other reason for visiting the Maritimes was to fulfill a long held dream of mine to visit some of the most reknown fossil beds on earth, namely the Fossil Cliffs at Joggins and Mistaken Point along the southern Avalon peninsula. Both sites are designated World Heritage UNESCO sites for their unique fossil beds which are both rare and abundant at the same time. For a location to be inscribed on the World Heritage list the site must be of "Outstanding Universal Value to Humanity" either for its cultural or natural significance to humankind. Only 227 sites in the world have made the list for their unique significance and value to natural history and science.

 

Joggins Fossil Cliffs along the shores of the bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, reveal the world's most complete fossil record of terrestrial life from the Carboniferous period (Pennsylvanian Period 310-325 million years ago). Also known as the "coal age" this period of geological time saw most of the world's future coal laid down in vast swamps across equatorial earth. The world was very different from today as the supercontinent Pangea was forming and what is called Nova Scotia today was located along the equator. The dense tropical forests that existed at that time consisted of fern like trees growing along flooded river plains and swamps (flowering plants and trees would not evolve for another 200 million years). Oxygen levels were at its highest in earth's history (35%) and as a result insects grew to tremendous sizes. Dragonflies with almost 1 meter wingspans and 2 meter long Millipedes roamed the forest. Some of the earliest reptiles were emerging which would soon give rise to the earliest lineage of mammals (Dinosaurs would not evolve for another 100 million years!). The Joggins fossil cliffs is home to the earliest known reptile "Hylonomous lyelli".

 

The fossil cliffs are 14.7 kilometers long and become progressively younger from north to south. The length of the sedimentary rocks comprising the cliffs is essentially a 15 million year timeline of geology and life as it existed 325 million years ago. Each human step represents roughly a thoudsand years of geological time. The cliffs are bathed constantly by the tides of the Bay of Fundy which claim the highest tides in the world. The tides fluctuate almost 50 feet twice a day. With each tide a bit more of the cliffs are eroded exposing new fossils of ancient trees such as the giant Club Moss "Lepidodendron" or the Horsetail "Calamites", or the early gymnosperm "Cordaites". The beaches and cliffs are littered with fossils almost everywhere you look and are replenished with new fossils with each tidal cycle. Guests are not allowed to keep any fossils but are encouraged to photograph and document them for research purposes.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia

Click on images below for larger images

 

 

 

At Joggins we see beds of exposed sedimentary strata, equivalent to three times the depth of Grand Canyon recording 15 million years of geologic time (318-303 MYA) along 15 km of shoreline

 Cindy showing a single strata of mudstone likely formed over thousands of years

 

 

 Lycopod tree trunk frozen in time within the cliffs.

 Fossilized coal age tree trunk (Sigillaria? Stigmaria?) found lying on the beach after the tide receeded. Each daily tidal cycle brings new fossils to the beach

 

 

 A piece of Calamites bark we found within minutes of walking out on the beach. Calamites made up the understory of the vast Carboniferous forest.

 Carbonaceous Fossil of a giant Club Moss, likely Lepidodendron. Lepidodendron made up the tallest trees of the ancient forest reaching heights of 100 feet

 

 

 Calamites which made up the understory of the ancient coal forest is the most common plant fossil found along the cliffs

During tidal recession the beach at Joggins with fossil cliffs to the left and Bay of Fundy to the right. The red sand and rocks are glacial till laid down around 10,000 years ago.

 

Mistaken Point,

Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

Named by 19th century sailors for it's many shipwrecks, an outcome of its confusing similarity to Cape Race Harbor, Mistaken Point contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils in the world. Ediacaran fossils, named for the period in which they lived (640-540 million years ago), discovered in 1967 at the site represent the oldest known remnants of multicellular life on Earth. After three billion years of solely microbial life in earth's oceans the creatures of the Ediacaran period represent a watershed in the history of life on earth as the first large, biologically complex organisms (when life got big). The location is a 17 km long strip of rugged coastline rock along the avalon peninsula in Newfoundland province. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016 and is now known as the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve.

The Avalon assemblage of Ediacaran creatures are described as Metazoan Animals (Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic, consume organic material, breathe oxygen, reproduce sexually, have myocytes and are able to move) however the Ediacaran creatures of Mistaken Point do not fulfill all these criteria as many were sessile benthic inhabitants (meaning they were attached to the seafloor and did not move) so their designation as belonging to the kingdom Animalia remains controversial. That said the organisms were definitely not plants as they existed below the photic zone in the oceans and could not have carried out photosynthesis. Later more recent ediacaran animals did show evidence of locomotion. The earlier sessile forms were apparently filter feeding on plankton and the later mobile forms fed on microbial seafloor mats. Predation had not yet evolved. These organisms showed no evidence of mucle, teeth or bones. Their soft body parts were surrendipidously preserved by volcanic ash which killed them rapidly, burried them quickly, and preserved them within an anoxic tomb on the seafloor (Ediacaran Pompeii). Many years later the seafloor was uplifted by tectonic activity and the volcanic ash eroded away revealing the soft body fossils within the shale.

Ediacaran fossils can be found at various locations on earth including its namesake, the Ediacaran hills of southern Australia, Namibia, and other locations however Mistaken Point contains the largest assemblage of the oldest and most basic Ediacaran forms. More than 10,000 fossil impressions, ranging from a few centimetres to nearly 2 metres in length, are readily visible along the rock outcrops. Most of the fossils are known as rangeomorphs, an extinct group of fractal branching organisms, the simpliest creatures of the Ediacaran biota but as such likely represent the very birth of animal life on earth, 40 million years before the "Cambrian Explosion" which saw the emergence of all modern animal phyla.

 

 

 Our small group on the tennis court size rock face viewing the fossils. Mistaken point is not open to the public and viewings are conducted through arranged guided tours. For a video of the area click the image or here To SEE A VIDEO

 One of the many "Rangeomorphs" with a coin to scale. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

 

The fossils were literally everywhere you stepped along the rock surface, frozen in time from an era when the landmasses were sterile and all life existed solely in the world's oceans (575 million years ago). We had to remove our shoes before going out on the rockface (my foot)

 Rangeomorphs grew as branching structures growing in a fractal pattern (one of the species is named "Fractofusus misrai") on the seafloor. Such organisms are described as Benthic which means inhabiting the seafloor.

   

 A fossil of a complete Rangeomorph with the stalklike structure which secured them to the seafloor.
  

 

Scenic Photos from our trip

 

 East Coast Trail, Newfoundland

 

 Pouch Cove Shoreline, East Coast Trail, Newfoundland

 

Pouch Cove, East Coast Trail, Newfoundland

 

 View from our cottage at Keltic Quay, Cape Breton Island

 

 At Shoe Cove, Newfoundland

 

 Whale and Puffin Boat Tour, Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, For a video of Humbacks we saw click Here

 

Me and my lady