Joggins Fossil Cliffs

• Official Name: Joggins Fossil Cliffs
• Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
• Year of Inscription: 2008

Joggins Fossil Cliffs is a site along Chignecto Bay in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia that contains some of the most important paleontological relics from what is known as the Coal Age. During this time in Earth’s history, the Joggins area was covered with thick, swampy forests where an abundance of prehistoric life thrived. The Bay of Fundy Tides—the highest tides in the world—eroded the coastline to reveal a wealth of fossilized plants and animals in the coal fields that resulted when the ancient forest wetland was covered by subsequent material. The diversity of the fossilized remains, coupled with the depth to which they have been uncovered and exposed, make Joggins Fossil Cliffs the world’s most comprehensive record of life in the time frame geologists refer to as the Pennsylvanian or Carboniferous strata.

The site includes remains from three distinct ecosystems and the animals that lived in them, including footprints still in place on the ground. Continuing erosion from twice-daily tides that can reach 42 feet (13 meters) reveal new finds, and visitors to the area have been known to spot newly revealed fossils on the beach. The site became a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 2008 in recognition of the extensive contribution it makes to understanding prehistoric life. Sometimes known as the Galapagos of the Coal Age, Joggins Fossil Cliffs was the fifteenth Canadian location to be identified as a World Heritage Site.

History

The Pennsylvanian period of Earth’s history was categorized by alternating times of low and high sea levels. When the seas receded, the low coastal areas alongside the water would be filled with abundant foliage. Swampy forests included ferns and tree ferns, giant club moss, and a variety of trees. Scientists theorize that the abundance of oxygen generated by this plant life allowed insects to grow to much larger sizes. Species that thrived in the area and were preserved in the fossil record include six-foot-long (two-meter-long) centipedes, cockroaches and scorpions about half that size, and dragonflies the size of ducks. Other animals flourished during this period as well, such as giant crocodiles and other smaller lizards, as well as mammals and birds.

During times when the seas were shallower and pulled away from the land, all this vegetation and animal life covered the land. At other times, the seas swelled to cover the land, as well as its plant and animal life. This process repeated, burying the organic matter from plants and animals beneath water and sediment. Over time, this built up in thick layers that were compressed by the weight of the material above it. This process, which occurred in various portions of the world, including Nova Scotia, turned matter, such as decomposing tree bark and other vegetation, into rich coal deposits.

The Bay of Fundy area is known for having the highest tides anywhere on Earth. The waters in the bay are subject to a kind of rocking motion called seiche. The water rocks from the mouth of the bay to its head over and over again in a process that takes about thirteen hours. Combined with the shape of the bay and the contours of the portion of it that is underwater, this rocking motion creates significant water activity that eroded away portions of the shoreline, exposing the coal fields and the fossilized plant and animal remains buried long ago.

Coal miners were the first to show interest in the deposits, arriving in the 1600s to extract the fossil fuels from the ground at Joggins. By the 1800s, the area had attracted the interest of geologists. The first geological survey undertaken by the then-newly formed Geological Survey of Canada happened in the area in 1843.

Those examining the site found stumps of large upright fossilized trees formed when peat deposits surrounded standing trees as sea waters filled in the wetland forests in prehistoric times. It was inside the charcoal-like material filling one of these tree stumps that the first fossils were found. Scottish geologist Sir Charles Lyell, who is credited as the father of modern geology, and Nova Scotia native Sir William Dawson discovered the fossilized remains of small reptiles in 1851. It appeared that when the stumps were once again uncovered during the repetitive cycle of the sea receding and returning to the land, the animals had fallen into the hollow in the tree and died. The discovery of more than a dozen fossilized animals in successive layers within the trunks indicated to scientists that the process had been repeated multiple times.

Between the coal and other rock formations found in the area, as well as the fossil finds, the area was of immense interest to scientists. The area has been studied by geologists and paleontologists throughout the nearly two hundred years since the first geological survey was conducted. The area was also of interest to the general public because many large fossils are visible in situ, or still in place where they were found. This includes footprints of a number of different species that were preserved in the mud, which in time hardened into rock and were preserved.

In 1972, Joggins Fossil Cliffs became the first area protected under Canada’s Historical Objects Protection Act of 1970. The protection this provided was strengthened in 1980 with the passage of the Special Places Protection Act of Nova Scotia, which superseded the 1970 act, and the cliffs area was designated a Special Place. The zone covered by this designation was increased in 2007 until it covered 14.7 kilometers, or just over nine miles, of coastline from the cliff face to 500 meters, or roughly 547 yards, into the water. In that same year, the Joggins Fossil Centre opened, offering a museum, interpretive center, tours, and more. In 2008, the cliffs received the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

Significance

Joggins Fossil Cliffs are like a time capsule that provides paleontologists and geologists with a window into the time in Earth’s history when coal was formed. It includes an extensive fossil record of species from this time period, many of which have not been found elsewhere. The oldest fossilized remains of many species of amniotes, or animals that develop from a type of fetal tissue known as amnion, have been found at Joggins. Amnion forms a protective membrane around the embryo, forming a sac that fills with fluid to nourish and protect it. Amniotes include mammals, reptiles, birds, and dinosaurs.

The fossil discoveries were occurring at around the same time that English naturalist Charles Darwin was conducting his research on evolution in the Galápagos Islands and elsewhere, and Lyell and Dawson were instrumental in having their research at Joggins included in Darwin’s famous 1871 book, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. The parallels between the discoveries at Joggins and Darwin’s discoveries, and their relevance to Darwin’s evolutionary theory, led to the Nova Scotia site being referred to as the Galápagos of the Coal Age.

The site provides the most complete record of fossilized life from the Coal Age that has been found. It includes fossilized documentation of three ecosystems from that time: an estuarine bay, a floodplain rainforest, and a fire-prone forested alluvial plain with freshwater pools. These areas were home to a diverse population of plant and animal life. This, combined with the rapid changes caused by flooding and fires, left fossil records of many plants and animals.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs have yielded the fossilized remains of around 200 fossil species and more than twenty groups of footprints preserved in rock. These include the remains of the large insects that were prevalent during this time, as well as small lizards and rodents. The large, fossilized tree stumps, leaves, and other plant material provide additional clues to what life was like in this area of Nova Scotia in prehistoric times, making it a valuable research site. New fossil remains are revealed often. For example, in 2024, paleontologists discovered a new ichnospecies named Pygocephalichnium reidi through a trace fossil in the Upper Joggins Formation.

The Joggins Fossil Centre includes research facilities that are open to scientists. It also provides guided tours to the public and field trips for schoolchildren to help educate people about the Coal Age. Although the area was already subject to protections from the Canadian and provincial government, the designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site serves to further preserve and protect the area for research in the future.

Bibliography

“Carboniferous Period.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/carboniferous. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs, jogginsfossilcliffs.net/index.php. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

“Joggins Fossil Cliffs.” Government of Canada, 19 Sept. 2023, www.pc.gc.ca/en/culture/spm-whs/sites-canada/sec02o. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

“Joggins Fossil Cliffs.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whc.unesco.org/en/list/1285. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

“Joggins Fossil Cliffs.” Your Nova Scotia Holiday, www.your-nova-scotia-holiday.com/joggins-fossil-cliffs.html. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

“Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site.” Nova Scotia Canada, www.novascotia.com/see-do/attractions/joggins-fossil-cliffs-unesco-world-heritage-site/1312. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Malay, Bailey C., et al. “A New Cubichnium Ichnogenus and Ichnospecies, Pygocephalichnium Reidi, from the Pennsylvanian UNESCO World Heritage Site at Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Canada, and Associated Ichnotaxa”. Atlantic Geoscience, vol. 60, Aug. 2024, pp. 185-03, doi:10.4138/atlgeo.2024.009. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.