Joggins Fossil Cliffs – Winter Newsletter 2024

Curator’s Corner

with Dr. Jade Atkins

Our sixteenth year as a UNESCO World Heritage Site contained a successful summer filled with plenty of time scouring the beach at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs for new fossil finds! I am pleased to share with you all new partnerships and research that I hope will continue over the next several years as I build my research program here at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.

In addition to these important research partnerships, I have been working closely with Carlos, our Manager of Education & Outreach to expand on the outreach program beautifully managed by our predecessors. For context: I didn’t meet a scientist, outside of medical professionals, until I was eighteen and at university. I often imagine the possibilities that could have been if I had the sort of scientific programming that we, along with our partners, provide here in Cumberland County. It is my hope that every child will know that science is an option for their future, should they seek it.

As always, I must thank our community scientists and their eyes on the beach for another successful season. None of us can be everywhere at all times. Our community scientists walk the beach when they can and send us coordinates and photos – helping us to collect valuable fossils before the harsh Bay of Fundy tides can take them away.

I also want to thank our funders. The Municipality of Cumberland, the Province of Nova Scotia, and the Government of Canada, all invest in the Joggins Fossil Cliffs to help us to continue to be a world class UNESCO World Heritage Site. Finally, I want to thank you! Every time you like or share our social media posts, every event you attend, and every admission you purchase helps us to continue our missions to share the Joggins Fossil Cliffs with the world. If you’d like to continue to help us, and if you are able, please keep liking and sharing our posts, attending our events, and consider making a charitable donation to the Joggins Fossil Institute this holiday season. Your donations help us to expand our programming and enable us to continue to build a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment here at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.

New Research

We also welcomed Mitch Maracle and Amy Tizzard, geologists with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. This team is working on long-term monitoring of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. In Nova Scotia, rates of erosion along the coast are highly variable and can range from a few centimetres to a metre or more per year. Hurricanes and severe storms and their accompanying storm surges may result in several metres of erosion occurring over an extremely short period of time. The first steps towards protecting our coast, including the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, is regular monitoring of our coastline.

Recent Awards & Publications

Well done Bailey Malay and co-authors on their recent publication in Atlantic Geoscience titled, “A new cubichnium ichnogenus and ichnospecies, Pygocephalichnium reidi, from the Pennsylvanian UNESCO World Heritage Site at Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Canada, and associated ichnotaxa.” The team described a new resting trace fossil interpreted to belong to a shrimp-like invertebrate. They named the fossil after Don Reid, a member of the Order of Nova Scotia and community palaeontologist who recognized the significance of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.

Congratulations to Alexia Hannberg on defending her honours thesis titled, “Ichnology of the Pennsylvanian-aged Boss Point Formation at Cape Enrage, New Brunswick: Implication for the paleoenvironmental context for the Lower Boss Point Formation in the Cumberland Subbasin of the Maritimes Basin.” The type section for this formation is the oldest part of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. This research is valuable for our understanding of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, and Carboniferous palaeontology  in the Maritimes!

Virtual Seminar Series

Education and Outreach

2024 was an exiting year for our Education and Outreach efforts. We saw the return of our Summer Day Camp a well as a March Break camp offering. Our summer camp was a 5-day program that saw children from all over the Maritimes participate in dozens of hands-on science activities at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs and in the museum. The best part? We were able to offer financial support for nearly all the participants thanks to a generous donation from a local charity. We were beyond pleased to be able to share this experience with underserved communities and hope to be able to offer these subsidies again next year.

We also had a busy summer with multiple educational groups visiting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. Many local community organizations and learning institutions booked our services and offerings, with ages ranging from primary school to graduate school. In all, we hosted an estimated 250 visitors booking through our education programming. Our tours were the most popular option, however some groups opted for a more tailored activity, including many of our science programs. If you are an educator or a group leader interested in any of our programs, including classroom visits, please contact: outreach@jogginsfossilcliffs.net

Development