In our own backyard!

Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve

Mistaken Point—named for the navigational hazard it poses at the often-foggy southeastern 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 and cleaved mudstone and sandstone, exposed by the pounding of the Atlantic waves, are fossils of the oldest creatures—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 5.7-km² Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. The Reserve is the only place in the world where you can view a 565-million-year-old sea floor that accurately preserves the ecology of these ancient deep sea communities. The area is one of nine sites on the Canadian Tentative list of potential UNESCO World Heritage properties.