Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve

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Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve
Ediacaran fossils Mistaken Point Newfoundland.jpg
Ediacaran fossils, with a penny for size comparison
Canada Newfoundland relief location map.jpg
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Canada relief map 2.svg
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Location Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Nearest city St. John's
Coordinates 46°37′55″N53°11′25″W / 46.63194°N 53.19028°W / 46.63194; -53.19028
Area5.7 km2 (2.2 sq mi)
Established1984 (1984)
Governing bodyNewfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation
Official nameMistaken Point
TypeNatural
Criteriaviii
Designated2016 (40th session)
Reference no. 1497
Region Europe and North America

Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is a wilderness area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located at the southeastern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The reserve is home to the namesake Mistaken Point Formation, which contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils in the world. Ediacaran fossils discovered at the site constitute the oldest known remnants of multicellular life on Earth. [2]

Contents

Mistaken Point

Mistaken Point ( 46°37′32″N53°09′41″W / 46.62556°N 53.16139°W / 46.62556; -53.16139 ) is a small headland on the Avalon Peninsula. Historically, Mistaken Point has been mistaken for Cape Race due to the area's typically foggy weather conditions. Sailors making this error would turn north, thinking they had reached Cape Race Harbour, and immediately run into treacherous rocks.

History

The first fossil to be found in the area, Fractofusus misrai , was discovered in June 1967 by Shiva Balak Misra, an Indian graduate student studying geology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. [3] [4] In the mid-1980s, the site quickly became recognized as an important location containing possibly the oldest metazoan fossils in North America, and the most ancient deep-water marine fossils in the world. A five-kilometre stretch of coastline was first established provisionally as a reserve by the provincial government in 1984 and was permanently designated in 1987. It was later expanded in 2009 after further fossil discoveries. [2]

Fossils

Studies have shown that the Mistaken Point biota represents the oldest Ediacaran fossils known globally, and are the oldest large and architecturally complex organisms in Earth history. [5] The fossil sites along the shore within the reserve were inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list on July 17, 2016. [6] [7] [8]

Avalonia terrane

The fossil terrane of Mistaken Point is the named Avalonian terrane that is found in Western Europe. [9] It formed in the early Cambrian when Pannotia broke from Gondwana (now South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia).

IUGS geological heritage site

In respect of Mistaken Point being 'the best example in the world of an Edicaran fossil community where life first got big and metazoan communities bloomed', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the 'Ediacaran fossil site of Mistaken Point' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an 'IUGS Geological Heritage Site' as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.' [10]

Cultural references

See also

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<i>Fractofusus misrai</i> Frondose Ediacaran fossil

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Shiva Balak Misra is an Indian geologist, writer and social worker from Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh in India and is known for his contribution to the knowledge of earliest life forms on earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mistaken Point Formation</span>

The Mistaken Point Formation is a geologic formation in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is recognized as a Lagerstätte preserving fossils dating back to the Ediacaran period. It contains a stratum dated to 565 ± 3 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fermeuse Formation</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conception Group</span>

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<i>Parviscopa</i> Genus of frondose

Parviscopa is a genus of frondose forms characterized in 2008 based on specimens from Newfoundland, Canada. Parviscopa is a member of the Ediacaran biota, and is more specifically part of the Avalon type assemblage, which is from the older part of the Ediacaran and is characterized by deep water deposits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Avalon–Burin oceanic barrens</span> Ecological region within Canada

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<i>Trepassia</i> Extinct species of disc-shaped organism

Trepassia is a 579 million-year-old fossil of Ediacaran rangeomorph. It was first discovered by Guy M. Narbonne, a professor at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and colleagues in 2009. Three years later, Martin D. Brasier added additional description to Trepassia. The generic name is taken from the French word, trépassés, which translates to "those that have departed forever" and honors the Trepassey community in Newfoundland. It was originally described as Charnia wardi; it was referred under this synonym in a 2016 paper.

<i>Frondophyllas</i> Rangeomorph

Frondophyllas, also referred to Xmas tree, is an extinct, monotypic animal genus in the clade Rangeomorpha. It was found at the Mistaken Point on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada in 2008 by Bamforth and Anderson. The single species is Frondophyllas grandis and as of 2021 only two specimens have been discovered. Both specimens are incomplete, but one extends to one meter long, making it one of the largest Ediacaran macrofossils. The species name: grandis, comes from its size, and the genus name: Frondophyllas means "frond with leaves". The organism has a base structure with numerous fronds attached to it. It is the only Ediacaran organism to have distinct leaflets. Evidence suggests that F. grandis may have been tethered to the seafloor and used these leaflets to "filter feed", or live off nutrients provided by a current. One of the reasons fossils of this species are so rare is because it was a soft-bodied organism. It is believed that F. grandis was preserved because it was caught beneath quickly solidifying volcanic ash. Many of the Mistaken Point fossils were preserved this way.

References

  1. "Protected Planet | Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve". Protected Planet. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  2. 1 2 "Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve". NL Department of Environment and Conservation. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  3. BBC News (18 September 2007). "Rare honour for Indian geologist". BBC South Asia. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  4. http://www.mistakenpointfauna.com/paper1.html MISRA, S.B.,(1969a) Geology of Biscay Bay-Cape Race area, Avalon Peninsula, South Eastern Newfoundland
  5. Queens University Research Archived 17 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Mistaken Point". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  7. MacEachern, Daniel. "Newfoundland's Mistaken Point named UNESCO World Heritage site". CBC News. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  8. Unesco World Heritage List
  9. COCKS, L. R. M.; MCKERROW, W. S.; VAN STAAL, C. R. (September 1997). "The margins of Avalonia". Geological Magazine. 134 (5): 627–636. Bibcode:1997GeoM..134..627C. doi:10.1017/s0016756897007425. ISSN   0016-7568. S2CID   130769330.
  10. "The First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites" (PDF). IUGS International Commission on Geoheritage. IUGS. Retrieved 13 November 2022.