It could take some time to explore and record a newly-discovered fossil bed that could rival the Mistaken Point World Heritage Site.
Professor Duncan McIlroy with Memorial University’s Department of Earth Sciences visited the site near Upper Island Cove last week.
He says the rock, which is on private property, was exposed by a tree that had toppled over, revealing a bonanza of Ediacaran-era creatures.
Photo credit: Rich Blenkinsopp/Memorial University
McIlroy says when he arrived at the site he found a species, Charnia, well known to science, but as he and his team continued exploring, they found much, much more.
He says they exposed an area that was about 10×10 metres which was “absolutely covered” in hundreds of fossils. McIlroy says some of the fossils are known, and some of them have yet to be identified, with a possibility that some are new to science.
Similar to Mistaken Point, the creatures, which would have been fixed to the seabed, died. Their impressions were preserved when they were covered by volcanic ash.
