Earliest Evidence for Reptiles Discovered in Canada

This is super cool, by accident this new evidence was found in New Brunswick, Canada.

Hundreds of footprints were found in the rock which fell from the sea cliffs.

www.physorg.com


Newly discovered fossilised footprints provide the earliest evidence yet for the evolution of reptiles – a major event in the history of life. They are 315 million years old, making reptiles up to 3 million years older than previously thought.

Amazing discoveries recently, I love it!

This discovery happened a couple of months ago purely by accident. It was on the radio here for a day or 2 but there wasn't any stories published so I didn't bring it up. New Brunswick is where I live.

Great find Jack.

I have been waiting for this to get published to find some more info on this discovery.

reply to post by GAOTU789



That's awesome! If you can see the cliffs maybe you can get some exclusive info from scientists exploring the find area.

I am sure they wouldn't want just anyone scouring the cliffs to gather up some fossils.

Any activity around there now?

I don't live near there. I live in the south part of the province but I plan on taking a weekend before winter hits and going for a visit. NB isn't the biggest province in Canada but it's still rather large. My daughter loves Dino's so i think she'll be fascinated with it.

I have the thread in my ats fav's so when I do go I'll report back anything that I find out from anyone working at the site. Thats if they'll tell me anything.

As far as gathering fossils, I am not sure who said it but theres a phrase I like to live by when trekking through nature...

"Take only pictures and leave only footprints"

Originally posted by GAOTU789
"Take only pictures and leave only footprints"

and...
Make sure it's a Good Camera!

Super,

I hope you find plenty to photograph and your daughter's day is filled with a lifetime of memories.

Cool story!

I love this kind of stuff.

And fossil collecting on private property is illegal in the US. I'm sure it's similar in Canada.

That includes government land, too.

That's not to say I don't have a fossil collection of my own, though.

Some more info on the discovery in this article:

Ancient reptile tracks unearthed

..."However, the prints showed that the hands had five fingers and scales, sure evidence they were made by reptiles and not amphibians."

The most likely contender was a lizard-like reptile named Hylonomus lyelli after the 19th Century geologist Sir Charles Lyell.

Until now, the oldest evidence for reptiles was thought to be skeletal fossils of the creature found in 1859 by William Dawson...

Great Find! Be sure to post more pics and any more information!

This was published in the newspaper here today.

telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com...

John Calder, senior geologist with the Nova Scotia department of natural resources, argues there are flaws in the evidence Falcon-Lang uses to support his view the fossils are the oldest record to date.

Calder told the Chronicle Herald that, judging by photographs, the footprints are too large to be made by reptiles. And while Falcon-Lang claims the fossilized footprints are older than the skeletons because he found them almost a kilometre below levels of the 1859 discovery, that may not be true, said Calder.

Looks like there may be a bit of controversy of the age.

I haven't found out the exact location yet, I did call the museum but all they said was south of Sackville, just like the article states. That is much closer than I thought. Looks like I could only spend an hour driving rather 3-4 maybe 5 hours. That would be a much better day out for a walk on the beach.