[News] 320-million-year-old fossils discovered at Cape Enrage, New Brunswick (Canada)

by Allan April - Writer, and Laura Lyall - CTV News Atlantic Videographer
Published Monday, August 10, 2020 9:55PM ADT



CAPE ENRAGE, N.B. -- With its spectacular views of the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick's Cape Enrage is a popular tourist destination. But some recent discoveries of the ancient variety have researchers exploring the area.

Researchers from the New Brunswick Museum are searching for ancient signs of life along the base of the seaside cliffs of Cape Enrage, N.B.

“Often we’re walking a beach, we might see something different,” explains Olivia King, a research associate with the New Brunswick Museum. “We may see a recent rock fall that happened, and at that point, we usually stop, take a minute, flip over a couple of rocks.”

In doing so, the team has made a major discovery -- the first evidence of ancient animal life found at the location.


Fossilized footprints of amphibians, reptiles, horseshoe crabs, giant millipedes and more, the first evidence of animals preserved in these rocks at this site from the carboniferous period.

“We can paint a better picture of what the landscape was like here at Cape Enrage 320 million years ago,” says Matt Stimson, assistant curator of paleontology and geology at the New Brunswick Museum. “We have the plants, we have a really good idea of what the plants looked like, what the flora and forest looked like. But now we have evidence of what the animals were as well.”

Members of the New Brunswick museum, geological survey branch and Cape Enrage have been examining and documenting fossils in the area for years.


From giant millipedes to early reptiles, Cape Enrage is home to an outrageous number of fossils.

There are an abundance of them, and Cape Enrage is developing a guided tour to show visitors to the area.

“For years people have been bringing up to the site fossils from these cliffs, and we didn’t really know what to do with them, so now we know, we have an amateur paleontologist permit now,” says Sylvie Migneault, Cape Enrage assistant manager.

The next step is bringing the samples back to the New Brunswick Museum to be catalogued to become part of the provincial collection.

Anyone who discovers a fossil in the area is asked to bring it to the attention of the Cape Enrage staff, or the New Brunswick museum.



Original post: CTV News

Location: Cape Enrage, Harvey Parish, NB, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Martin Head (Southern New Brunswick)

Image
There's a place, called Martin Head, located just West of Fundy Park that people having been going to for a very long time. I've been talking to people and every time I mention camping sites, people would ask me: "Have you gone to Martin Head yet?". As it turned out I hadn't, so thus became an item that went up in my 'To do' list. Martin Head is a mash up of very old and not as old rocks. The 'island' which goes by the name Martin Head is made up mostly of Cambrian rocks, or even older. The basalts are mixed with some sedimentary rocks of about the same age, and some mineral deposits (I couldn't find which type of minerals occurred). The section between the island and the beach which includes some sections of the cliffs are of younger age, dating close to the Late Triassic. Click here for information about the fossilized Sand Dunes of Martin Head. These are mostly buff or reddish sandstones. There is a small section that juts out fr
Read more

Amethyst Cove (Blomidon, Nova Scotia)

Image
This past Summer I talked to people about collecting local minerals to add to my collection, and several people mentionned Amethyst Cove. Amethyst Cove is a section of Blomidon Provincial Park, near Canning, Nova Scotia. This location is quite difficult to get at as the options to get there are slim. You can access Amethyst Cove either by boat (preferably from Parrsboro at high tide), by walking around Cape Split or from White Water (which could take half a day or more, making it quite fucking impossible), or by repelling down a cliff 300 to 400 feet high, by shaky ropes. I talked to Matt about going to Amethyst Cove someday and didn't think that I would have made it this year. Matt offered to take me there. He was very familiar with the area as he has gone there several time. We picked September 24th to go down. I left Moncton at around 6:30AM and made my way to Halifax to pick up Matt and his buddy Chris. From there we proceeded to drive North towards Wolfville on the 101. (1
Read more

Rock Hunting in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Image
Me and my buddy Matt went for a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia this past Saturday (November 26th, 2011) to snoop around the city and try to collect rocks and minerals. Why snoop around a big city for minerals? Halifax lies on top of a granitic pluton, a mass of magma located under the surface which has slowly cooled. The batholith intrusion was exposed over a long period of time, over several million years. The granite that you see on most road cuts leading in and out of the city was part of that feature. With igneous rock comes the chance to find interesting crystals. The area is known for its quartz (smoky), feldspar (K-feldspar), tourmaline, pyrite (fool's gold), and gold among other things. When we arrived in Halifax, we had driven by some road cuts that had yielded several minerals. We parked the car close-by so that we could go take a look before going for a bite to eat. We took some of our gear and headed out to check the outcrops. The granite contained fine to bigg
Read more