Fossil Hunting in the Canadian Maritimes
- Wayne Munday
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
Sip back and discover Canada and explore fossil hunting in the Canadian Maritimes comprised of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence the Maritimes are known for their rugged coastlines, maritime heritage and a fossil record that spans more than 600 million years. From the towering cliffs of Nova Scotia to the sweeping red shores of Prince Edward Island the region offers one of the most complete and accessible geological records in North America. The Maritimes sit within the northern Appalachian Mountains formed through successive continental collisions during the Paleozoic Era. Ancient microcontinents once drifted across Earth before colliding with the North American landmass. These events produced deformed metamorphic belts, volcanic arcs and sedimentary basins that now define the region’s complex geodiversity. Explore some of the fossil sites of the Canadian Maritimes it would make a outstanding road trip.
The Canadian Maritimes comprising of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island form a distinctive region on the eastern coast of Canada bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Located north east of New England and south of Newfoundland and Labrador the Maritimes represent the heart of Atlantic Canada’s coastal heritage. Nova Scotia is a narrow peninsula joined to the mainland by the Isthmus of Chignecto while New Brunswick borders Maine and overlooks the Bay of Fundy famous for the world’s highest tides. Prince Edward Island, the smallest province rests in the Gulf of St. Lawrence connected to the mainland by the Confederation Bridge.
This ocean-facing region is celebrated for its rugged coastlines, maritime culture and deep historical roots shaped by Indigenous, Acadian and British traditions. With its rich seafaring identity and striking Atlantic landscapes the Canadian Maritimes remain one of Canada’s most culturally and geographically distinctive regions.
Fossil Hunting at Mistaken Point in Newfoundland and Labrador
Perched on the southeastern edge of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is one of the world’s most extraordinary fossil sites, preserving the earliest evidence of large, complex multicellular life. Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the IUGS “First 100 Geological Heritage Sites,” this windswept headland records a pivotal chapter in Earth’s history nearly 600 million years ago during the Ediacaran Period just before the Cambrian Explosion.
The dark mudstones and sandstones of Mistaken Point, tilted toward the North Atlantic, contain exquisitely preserved impressions of entire Ediacaran seafloor communities. These soft-bodied organisms such as rangeomorphs, Fractofusus, and Charniodiscus were buried rapidly by volcanic ash, their delicate forms captured in remarkable detail. Their unique morphologies, from fractal fronds to holdfast-anchored structures, reveal the first steps toward ecological complexity, showing that multicellular life flourished long before skeletons or shells evolved.
Fossil Hunting at Discovery Geopark in Newfoundland and Labrador
Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark, located on Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula, is a world-class destination where geology, palaeontology and cultural heritage intertwine. Spanning landscapes shaped by volcanoes, glaciers and the North Atlantic the geopark preserves a 560-million-year-old fossil record from the Ediacaran Period the final chapter of the Precambrian marking the emergence of the first complex multicellular life before the Cambrian Explosion.
Geosites like Port Union and Spillars Cove offer direct encounters with these fossils, showcasing intricate imprints of frond-like Charniodiscus, cabbage-shaped Bradgatia, and the enigmatic “pizza-shaped” Ivesheadiamorphs. The park’s volcanic and glacial history also supports diverse ecosystems, from boreal forests of Balsam Fir to limestone wildflower habitats, while coastal cliffs host thriving puffin and kittiwake colonies. Offshore, visitors can spot whales and drifting icebergs along the renowned Iceberg Alley.
Fossil Hunting at Blue Beach in Nova Scotia
Located along the Minas Basin in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy, Blue Beach is one of the world’s most scientifically important fossil sites, revealing a critical chapter in Earth’s evolutionary history when vertebrates first began to walk on land. Situated within the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark, this two-kilometre stretch of coastline lies within the Horton Bluff Formation of the Horton Group, dating between 385 and 345 million years ago a period spanning the late Devonian to early Carboniferous. These rocks capture a pivotal interval known as Romer’s Gap, a 20-million-year window following the Devonian extinction, when early tetrapods evolved limbs, lungs, and the ability to live on land.
The tidal forces of the Bay of Fundy, famous for the world’s highest tides, continually expose new fossils from the cliffs’ soft sandstones, siltstones, and shales. The site preserves a diverse array of early fish, amphibians, and reptile ancestors, alongside trackways of pioneering tetrapods such as Eochelysipus horni, Peratodactylopus bishopi, and Baropezia. Over 2,000 tetrapod footprints have been documented, including the type ichnospecies Hylopus logani first recognised by Sir William Logan in 1841.
Fossil Hunting at Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia
Cape Breton Island, located in northeastern Nova Scotia and separated from the mainland by the Strait of Canso, offers a dramatic landscape shaped by more than a billion years of Earth’s geological history. Bordered by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean, the island features the Cape Breton Highlands, Bras d’Or Lake and the Sydney Coalfield, reflecting both its tectonic and paleontological heritage.
Uplift during the formation of the Appalachian Mountains around 325 million years ago exposed Carboniferous coal-bearing basins, particularly the Sydney Coalfield, which contains over a dozen major seams formed in tropical peat-forming swamps. Burial, compaction, and coalification transformed organic material into high-volatile bituminous coal, preserving a rich palaeobotanical record. Fossils include towering Lepidodendron and Bothrodendron scale trees, horsetails, ferns, and seed ferns, often retaining root structures (Stigmaria) in situ. While vertebrate fossils are rare, recent discoveries of 320-million-year-old anthracosaur trackways reveal apex predators in Carboniferous swamp ecosystems.
Fossil Hunting at Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia
Joggins Fossil Cliffs, located along Chignecto Bay in Nova Scotia, offer a globally significant window into terrestrial life during the Pennsylvanian Subperiod of the Late Carboniferous (323–299 million years ago). Stretching approximately 14.7 kilometres along the Cumberland Basin, part of the greater Maritimes Basin, the cliffs reveal a unique tropical ecosystem preserved within the Joggins Formation, a 1.5-kilometre-thick sedimentary sequence of interbedded coal, mudstone, sandstone, claystone, and organic-rich shales. The dynamic tidal environment of the Bay of Fundy, home to some of the world’s highest tides continually exposes new fossils.
The Joggins Formation preserves extraordinary fossils, including polystrate lycopsid trees, Cordaites, and hollowed Sigillaria trunks that hosted microhabitats for early tetrapods, insects, and the first known land snail, Dendropupa vetusta. Most notably, the site yielded Hylonomus lyelli, the earliest recognised amniotic reptile, representing a critical evolutionary step enabling vertebrates to reproduce fully on land. Fossilised tree hollows, trackways, and large arthropods like Arthropleura further illustrate the diversity and ecological complexity of these Carboniferous landscapes.
Fossil Hunting at Cliffs of Fundy in Nova Scotia
The Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark, established in 2020, stretches 165 kilometres along Nova Scotia’s north shore from Parrsboro to Apple River, encompassing tidal estuaries, volcanic headlands and dramatic sea cliffs shaped by the world’s highest tides. Daily tidal surges exceeding 16 metres continually reshape the landscape, exposing mudflats, tidal bores, and rich fossil beds, while revealing minerals and semi-precious stones including amethyst, agate, calcite, coal, copper, and jasper. The Geopark lies within the ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq Nation, whose cultural heritage, including the legend of Kluskap, remains intertwined with the landscape.
The Geopark’s geology records over 400 million years of Earth history, from the Precambrian to the Mesozoic, illustrating tectonic collisions, mountain building during the Acadian Orogeny, and the breakup of Pangaea. The Parrsboro Formation, part of the late Carboniferous Westphalian epoch, preserves fossil-rich mudstones, sandstones, and coals that document some of the earliest terrestrial tetrapods. Trace fossils such as Hylopus hardingi, Dromilopus quadrifidus and Cursipes dawsoni reveal the pioneering amphibians and reptile-like vertebrates that first ventured onto land.
Fossil Hunting at Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada’s smallest province, is renowned for its striking Permian redbeds, a series of iron-rich sandstones, siltstones, and mudstones deposited 255–300 million years ago during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. These vividly red cliffs, formed from river and floodplain sediments in the Maritimes Basin reveal the island’s tropical lowland environment when it lay near the equator on Pangea. The redbeds, part of the Pictou Group, record environmental transitions from humid Carboniferous wetlands to the more seasonal, arid conditions of the Early Permian, preserving an exceptional fossil record.
PEI’s fossils include the sail-backed synapsid Dimetrodon borealis, first discovered in 1845 at French River, marking Canada’s earliest named vertebrate fossil. Fossil trackways of early reptiles, assigned to Notalacerta and Gilmoreichnus, alongside plant fossils such as Walchia, Paracalamites, giant ferns and Horsetails, provide insight into the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and the transition from Carboniferous coal forests to a reptile dominated Permian landscape.