Locations in Nova Scotia (Part 2): Blue Beach – a locality in the Annapolis Valley
George Burden (Canada)
In this second article on fossil locations in Nova Scotia in Canada, I will discuss the fascinating site of Blue Beach. This is perhaps the least known and most under-appreciated of the three major fossil cliffs in Nova Scotia. Most residents of the province (including me, until a few months ago) are unaware of the site. This is a pity, for it is the most accessible of the three sites in the Halifax Regional Municipality, which is the major population centre of Nova Scotia.
Blue Beach is located just outside the town of Hantsport in the Annapolis Valley, just off Highway 101. Chris Mansky, a knowledgeable amateur palaeontologist, and Sonja Wood own and run a private interpretation centre and museum. Chris takes visitors on a tour of the museum and down to the beach, pointing out interesting fossils and sharing his, not inconsiderable, knowledge of this important deposit, which dates from Romer’s Gap in the Early Carboniferous Period (360 to 340 million years ago). Romer’s Gap, named after palaeontologist Dr. Alfred Romer, was a period from about 360 to 340 million year ago from which fossils are rarely found. It is not known for sure why this is the case, but this was also a crucial time for tetrapod development. Along with the Kirkton Quarry in Bathgate, Scotland, Blue Beach is one of the few sites Gap fossils are accessible.
As Chris says:
One of the first things a visitor will notice about Blue Beach is that every third rock here contains a fossil of some kind. You literally can’t walk down the beach without stepping on dozens.”
Like the Joggins fossil cliffs (see Locations in Nova Scotia (Part 1): Joggins – a Carboniferous fossil forest), Blue Beach is washed by the huge Bay of Fundy tides that constantly erode cliff faces and expose new fossils. Indeed, visitors need to be wary of the tides, for many have been trapped by rapidly rising waters.
Most of the easily visible fossils on Blue Beach represent preserved mud cracks and ripples in sand or mud. The more assiduous will find lycopod fossils of various kinds.
They consist of detailed traces of the bark of these huge ancestors of today’s club mosses. The preserved rootlets of lycopsids, called Stigmaria, will often reward the avid fossil hound (Fig. 1). Calamites and seed fern fossils have also been found in the cliffs.
Perhaps of greater interest are the vertebrate fossils, because of the scarcity of specimens from a time that represents a crucial phase in their transition from water to land. A quintet of fossil fish-types await the avid palaeontologist, including huge rhizodonts, which are lobe-finned fish with large teeth intended for stabbing and holding prey. The museum at Blue Beach has a number of outstanding examples of mandibles with intact teeth from this fish. Other vertebrate fossils found here include chondricthyians (sharks), palaeoniscids (ray-finned fishes), dipnoans (lungfish) and acanthodians (bony fishes notable for the spines in front of their fins).
In November 2004, at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting, Spencer Lucas, of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, presented fossil evidence from Blue Beach of the oldest known tetrapod ichnofauna footprints ever found. These date from the Lower Mississippian (Tournaisian) epoch (360 to 345 million years ago) and place pentadactyl (that is, five-toed) tetrapods at a much earlier point in time than previously believed.
Amphibian remains tend to be scattered and are not well studied. However, one of the most impressive trace fossils found at Blue Beach was made in 1964, during unusually low tides. Dr. David Mossman and a companion were astounded to discover a trail of twenty seven, 30cm-long footprints belonging to a massive and unknown amphibian. Less massive tetrapod imprints are often found on the beach, as are other trace fossils, including worm burrows (Fig. 6) and scratches.
Overall, Blue Beach, though less heralded, is a hidden treasure awaiting visitors to Nova Scotia, who share an interest in palaeontology.
For further information on the unique paleontological and geological history of this area, and for information to help you plan a visit to Nova Scotia, you can go to the following websites: