Keenan's Blogiddy Blog

from Jessica Doria-Brown (CBC) 'To think that you had something in your hands that could be this old' Click this link to view the video within article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-fossil-museum-heritage-foundation-1.5416597https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-fossil-museum-heritage-foundation-1.5416597?fbclid=IwAR1aJeRsIL67H_HCUxOB-Bxbkp6teQBYBT2tk9aHlDHhgtHMBZ1fdYmu-R8 An Island couple is donating a 300-million-year-old fossil to the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation. The pair discovered the rock — with amphibian footprints — while strolling along the beach in the Cumberland area in July. The fossil was found on a loose rock on the ground. "I just looked down and saw this stone and it had prints on it," said Pat Sweet. "It was quite amazing actually, to think that you had something in your hands that could be this old. It was quite amazing really, we just couldn't believe it," said Bob Sweet...

[Personal note: The UNESCO team has been on site these past few days and I'm sure they're amazed by what they've seen. You can visit the Cliffs of Fundy Aspiring Global Geopark facebook page -- https://www.facebook.com/fundygeopark/ -- to get updates. Let's hope that they'll join the Canadian Geopark family¹!] from The Chronicle Herald - published June 25th Evaluators from UNESCO will be in Cumberland and Colchester counties in late July to evaluate the proposed Cliffs of Fundy Aspiring Geopark as a potential UNESCO Global Geopark. - Tourism Nova Scotia Maybe we should turn left at Truro once in a while. Many, if not most, Haligonians escaping the city on a summer road trip just sail through the hub city on their way north to P.E.I., New Brunswick or central Canada, or east to answer Cape Breton’s siren call. There are highway signs, though, that tease the knowing traveller west, to places like the beguili...

by Hillary Maddin (Vertebrate Paleontologist, Assistant Professor, Carleton University) - July 16, 2019 Over 150 years ago, geologist Sir William Dawson made an astounding discovery in the Joggins Cliffs, along the shores of Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy. Within the lithified remains of a giant tree-like plant were the bones of a tiny, 310 million-year-old animal. This animal was unlike any other seen thus far. It was able to venture where no vertebrate (back-boned) animal had ventured before, deep into the lycopsid forests, away from the water’s edge. This was all thanks to an evolutionary innovation: the amniotic egg. Although animals had previously ventured onto land in the earlier Devonian Period, animals with an amniotic egg — such as modern reptiles, birds and yes, even mammals — do not need to return to the water to reproduce, as modern amphibians still do. The amniotic egg is a self-contained pond, where the embryo and all its food and waste are stored surrounded by a pr...

October of 2014 saw a few storms that rocked the coast of Joggins pretty good. In sites like these, the day(s) after a storm is the best day to see if nature revealed more of its secrets. I invited my friend Ray to come down South to Nova Scotia with me for a little trip and boom, on the road with good company! For people that don't know what or where Joggins is by now (look up my previous posts or just search for it on the 'InTeRnEtS' via a search engine), you'll find out that this UNESCO site plays a crucial part in trying to understand our past, before the domination of giant diapsids, aka dinosaurs. This place touts having discovered some of the (if not the) oldest reptile ever found, which most remains are lodged inside fossil trees which Joggins is reknowned for. The area that we usually like to walk to is a section along the Joggins Formation, located between Lower Cove and Shulie. The formations North/North East of the targeted section, Boss Point/Lower ...

Friday August 16th 2013 at the Gesner Institute Society Annual General Meeting in Parrsboro, the Atlantic Geoscience Society represented by John Calder, presented both Eldon George and Don Reid with the Laing Ferguson Distinguished Service Award. This award is in recognition of their incredible contribution to the scientific community and public. Don Reid (left), John Calder (center), Eldon George (right) Don Reid is known as the 'Keeper of the Cliffs'. He's been passionate about fossils for a very long time, and knows the Joggins cliffs like the back of his hand. Eldon George was also very passionate about fossils at a very young age. Owner of the Parrsboro Rock and Mineral Shop and Museum, he's also made some incredible finds throughout the years, such as the world's smallest dinosaur tracks. My sincere congratulations to two incredible individuals who have made amazing discoveries and contributions, inspiring many people along their paths to pursu...

Field work is going on right now at the site where Canada's oldest dinosaurs were found, near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. For a period of about 10 days, Dr. Tim Fedak and his team of students and volunteers are hoping to make some discoveries to add to the region's rich fossil history. One of the target areas where the team is concentrating  their effort to find an elusive dinosaur bone bed Dr. Fedak is among a number of people that had made important discoveries and unearth information on what went on during its ancient past in the Parrsboro area. Wasson's bluff has seen some of Canada's oldest dinosaur skeletons come out of these sandstones, tracing back all the way to the 1970s and beyond. Two Islands, viewed from across the dig site Prosauropods, early plant eating dinosaurs from the Triassic Period, fish, giant crocodiles, and some of the earliest mammal-like reptile remains have been found in the past, and the search continues to try to unveil more so to fill i...

Being on vacation meant being on the road, looking for rocks. That also meant that during that week, I had to make at least one stop at Joggins, in the wet province of Nova Scotia, where the bees shoot flames, and.. ok, lets move on. Here's a few photos of my trek down the beach. Like always, be mindful of the tides. Not knowing when high tide comes in could spell trouble as exit routes are not easily found. So you'd end up stranded for a few hours, so really not recommended to stick around when high time comes around. Sand nodule containing plants The sand nodules that I found on the beach are extremely hard and those I came across contained mostly plants, like the one I found already cracked on the photo above. Some of them were covered with pyrite (fool's gold). Trackways or sediment deformation? Lots of new plants, especially calamites (some whole) A lonely fern Found the other print of the lonely fern Got to the coal mine shaft and was surprised of how m...

Back in September 2011, I went on a field trip with my friend Matt Stimson and Dr. Randall Miller in the Cape Enrage area. The area wasn't well studied, so we walked the beach and inspected the cliffs. By the time we were done our walk that day, we had come across numerous geological features not previously recorded, and many fossil trackways to add to New Brunswick fossil record. A few days after our trek, we headed back to the fossil locality and proceeded with the extraction of several trackways, which are now housed in Saint John for further studying and preparation. You can follow these links to revisit previous posts on the 2011 field trip to the area: Fossil Track Expedition in Southern NB [Part 1] Fossil Track Expedition in Southern NB [Part 2] In one weekend we were able to make a few additions to the trackway record. That also meant that this area was susceptible to have more of them hidden along this stretch of alternating strata. The location was worthy of stu...