Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve
Mistaken Point—named for the navigational hazard it poses at the often-foggy southwestern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon peninsula—is one of the world's most significant fossil sites.
Embedded in the planes of Mistaken Point's tilted sandstone, shale, and slate coastline, exposed by the pounding of the Atlantic waves, are fossils of the oldest animals—in fact, the oldest complex life forms—found anywhere on Earth. Known to scientists as the Ediacara biota, they are creatures that lived 575 to 542 million years ago, when all life was in the sea.
The oldest and most spectacular assemblage of these fossils—the Mistaken Point assemblage (575 to 560 million years old)—is preserved in the 2.95-km2 Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve and its 2.7-km2 extension. The reserve is the only place in the world where you can walk (softly!) on a 565-million-year-old sea floor that accurately preserves the ecology of these ancient communities. The area is one of eleven sites in the Canadian list to be nominated for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The animals whose fossils now form the Mistaken Point assemblage lived on the bottom of a deep ocean, considerably below the depths that waves or light could reach. At the time, what is now Newfoundland existed somewhere between the equator and the Antarctic. More than 30 species of ancient animals are found in the Mistaken Point assemblage, most of them representatives of extinct groups unknown in our modern world.
In normal conditions, when marine organisms die, only bones, shells, and other hard parts are preserved as fossils. The soft-bodied creatures at Mistaken Point lived millions of years before animals developed skeletons, but the imprints of their soft tissues were preserved in place on the muddy sea floor when they were suddenly buried by repeated volcanic ash-falls. The volcanic ash layers contain zircon, which makes it possible for geologists to accurately date the different fossil layers. Fossils of similar age are found in Russia and Australia, but the variety found at Mistaken Point make the site unique.
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is in the Eastern Hyper-oceanic Barrens ecoregion (pdf). Visitors to this reserve should be prepared for cool, foggy or wet weather, a 45-minute hike over rolling ground, and a deeply refreshing and rewarding experience. The fossils are not marked; removing them is prohibited. Please avoid walking on loose rocks or gravel on the fossil beds as this will damage the fossils.
Guided tours and information are available from the Visitor Orientation Centre in Portugal Cove South. (See Cape Race-Portugal Cove South Heritage Inc.)
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve was established as a provisional reserve in 1984 and received full designation in 1987. An extension to the west was added as an emergency ecological reserve in 2002.
