Harvard team fossil hunting at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia Heather Desveaux, Chronicle Herald, June 22, 2017 http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1480307-video-harvard-team-fossil-hunting-at-blue-beach The Blue Beach Fossil Museum http://www.novascotia.com/see-do/attractions/blue-beach-fossil-museum/1611 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Beach Mansky, C.F. and Lucas, S.G., 2013. Romer’s Gap revisited: continental assemblages and ichno-assemblages from the basal Carboniferous of Blue Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Carboniferous-Permian Transition. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 60, pp. 244-273. http://www.academia.edu/12658498/Romers_Gap_revisited_continental_assemblages_and_ichnoassemblages_from_the_basal_Carboniferous.. Yours, Paul H.

Taken from one of my latest posts: http://redleafz.blogspot.ca/2014/01/blue-beach-hantsport-nova-scotia-fall.html I had meant to make a post on my blog on my last trip from last year to Blue Beach, in Nova Scotia but it had slipped my mind. I had brought my new Olympus SLR camera with me to capture snapshots and compare the quality with what I used to take photos with. A bit bulkier than the old gal, but I must admit that I won't miss her much. I can't recall when I went down there, and the data on the camera isn't accurate as I didn't bother setting the right time/date format. On this trek you will notice there's a little of everything spread all over along the beach. South of the Jurassic and Triassic rocks that make up most of the Blomidon Peninsula lies the Carboniferous Horton Formation. These fossil bearing sedimentary rocks stretch from a little South of Hantsport to about Boot Island, North East of the city of Wolfville. The further one ventures South, the more you'll encounter rocks containing evaporites. These would be mostly part of the Carboniferous Windsor group, full of limestones and gypsum, such as in Cheverie (click to see other post on location). Before heading down the path you get to see this The walk through the woods is nice The view as soon as you turn left walking down the path. These stratum have marine animals such as bivalves, brachiopods, and fragments of other animals. I've found some shale with arthropod traces in this area. I've mostly found them further North though. Some nice traces Rusophycus and cruziana from what I can tell There is also a good amount of plant material found along the beach. Fish scales Tree section Mechanical or actual tracks? Diplichnites Section of the cliffs where some of the bigger traces were found, further North. Tracks? Rusophycus (largest I've seen here so far) Last year was a great season and Blue Beach didn't disappoint. It's one of these places where it keeps attracting you. It will be one of my first beaches to hit when the ice starts to melt. The cliffs keep working out new material, so every time is a new adventure. Till next time... - Keenan

Taken from my blog post: http://redleafz.blogspot.ca/2013/06/cheverie-hantsport-nova-scotia.html I had planned to go back to Blue Beach in the Avonpart area for a while now. The site and other neighboring lcoations have always yielded wonderful specimens and I was itching to get back on the beaches and under the warm Nova Scotia Sun. I hadn't had the chance to hit the road for weeks due to some illness, but seeing the opportunity to go on a day trip, I took it. 1st stop Cheverie (red), 2nd stop Hantsport (red) 3rd and final stop Parrsboro (blue) (red path - from Moncton to stop #2 in Nova Scotia ) (blue path - from stop #2 to #3 in Parrsboro, then back to New Brunswick) I had planned to make a few stops in the Windsor area along the coast. I'd decided to check the white beaches of Cheverie and its gypsum cliffs. These evaporites were left from an ancient body of water, the Windor Sea. Gypsum makes up big sections the area, and is intermixed with very fossiliferous limestones and shales, from Cheverie to across the bay at Blue Beach, which would be my second stop. Stop #1 Cheverie is a few hours from Moncton, about 3 hours drive one way. I took the scenic route via Walton to drive along the coast. The drive itself was excellent as the weather couldn't have been better. Sunny with +30 degrees Celcius along the coast, what more can one ask? I left Moncton at around 7:30am and arrived at my first destination at about 11am. There was some road construction so that added a few more minutes to the trip. Parking on the side of the road, I grabbed my camera and proceeded down the beach. These cliffs are mostly composed of gypsum, with some limestone outcrops jutting out from time to time in some areas. Gypsum outcrop Horsetail White beaches of Cheverie After a short walk on the beach, I packed my gear and headed on the other side of Avon River, to Hantsport. My second stop that afternoon was Blue Beach down Bluff Road. I've been here a few times before and there is so much to see. The outcrops at Blue Beach are abundant with fossils from the Carboniferous Period, with layers transitioning between land- and water-type paleoenvironments. Stop #2 The shale and mudstone are rich in fossils, with numerous brachiopods and bivalves, fish scales, bones, and arthropod trackways. Some of the other sediment type such as some of the sandstones contain various well preserved plants and tetrapod tracks. Scales Shells Bone Arthropod and worm feeding and resting traces Outcrop where loose material contained many fossils Molluscs in groups Bones Possible trackways? Tree segment with bark impression Diplichnites (arthropod tracks) Trackways (?) - fossil plant part of the sandstone block I spent a couple of hours on the beach and kept coming up on a lot of material to look at. When it was time for me to leave, I noticed that I had only walk a tiny fraction of the beach that I had initially intended to. This site deserves another visit really soon from yours truly to check the rest of the beach. Having spent most of the day on the other side of Cumberland, I thought that it would be nice to have a bite in Parrsboro, across the Minas Basin. It was 4pm and I realized that it would be a 2 hour drive, or detour, but the Sun was out in full and the drive would be nice, especially driving along the coast. I packed up my stuff, and made my way towards Parrsboro, which would end up being stop #3. I drove into town and went down Two Island road to finally end up at the Harborview Restaurant, which had opened a few weeks earlier for the season. The food's great and you just can't beat the view. View from outside the restaurant Even though I wasn't able to hit all the spots I wanted, it was a very nice and productive day. Being cooped up in the house with the flu for two weeks, it was nice to catch some vitamin D from the good fiery globe in the sky. I arrived back in Moncton at about 8:30pm, but I could have kept on going. I will definitely have to swing back by that area very soon. Till then, cheers! - Keenan

Continued from Part 2 Lycopsid tree with bark (top of tree) One of many eagles we sighted flying over us. The high winds will sometimes push small rodents off the cliffs and result in their untimely deaths. This proves easy pickings for those winged predators. We had a guardian dog at Blue Beach, might as well have some guardian Eagles at Joggins. Those were incredibly BIG birds, over a meter in width easily. Hardscrabble Point (with Brian in the foreground) One of many trees exposed in the cliffs View from the car on our way back By the time we chit chatted with Brian a bit and the time he took off, it was close to 8pm. We stopped at a local restaurant to grab a bite to eat and chit chat with friends. We stayed a bit, enough time for me to enjoy some cinnamon goodness. Oooooh sooo good!! Matt had given Don Reid a call but he wasn't there. We stopped at Gloria's house, Don's daughter, and his car was there. We had a great time at their house. I love coming to Joggins where you'll find some of the friendliest people. Great hospitality! By the time we said our goodbyes, it was close to 11pm and it had started to snow. We took the road and let me say that, visibility was snarge. If it weren't for the wind, visibility would have been just fine, but it was like a blizzard. Good thing my car was still winterized, but there was nothing to worry about for the road were in good condition. Driving on country road was nerve wracking, but the highway proved a bit easier. Still, I didn't dare driving more than 80km/hr as sometimes I had to use the lines on the road as guides. As soon as we hit Moncton, it stopped snowing. All and all, this was an excellent trip. Tired, but oh so very freakin well worth it. I was extremely happy to get this type of road trip done this early in the season. I can't wait for other treks in the following weeks, where weather will even be more favorable. We've done a short list of sites we need to check as soon as possible, so we'll have that to keep us very busy for the next little while. I'll be adding a few more posts, so I'll be getting back in the groove. Till then, cheers!

Continued from Part 1 Other things we would find on the beach beside trackways are actual parts of the animals such as scales, teeth, and bones. Slab containing various bone fragments More bone fragments, scales This piece of sandstone shows an interesting feature. The recess shows a 'U' shape obstruction. This could have contributed by a change in water movement. This could be interpreted, possibly, as water movement such as a tide, and not simply as wave action. That's what comes to mind so far. Same thing I said before, I'll leave that to actual experts. More arthropod trackways Marks made by some type of pine cone (lycopsids are distant ancestors of conifers) Possible feeding trace (Cruziana - center), with resting trace (Rusophycus - top) This old dog hung out with us pretty much the whole trek. You could hear him cough once in a while and chewing some shale rocks. He stayed a little distance from us but never too far away. A couple passing by asked if the dog was friendly, which we replied he was. He didn't mind the attention. When it was time for us to turn back, we whistled to the dog and he followed us back up the beach. That day we had had our personal Blue Beach bodyguard. =P One section of the beach had a stratum, or layer, that extended from the cliffs to the bay. This layer of sedimentary rock had rounded cavities randomly spread across it. These cavities indicated the location of trees that would have had been growing. The traces of this ancient forest came in various sizes, from a couple centimeters to about a foot in diameter. More arthropod trackways (bottom right, close to hammer) I'd say when we were done, it was probably close to 1pm when we got back to the car. We put our equipment in the trunk and headed to Windsor to gas up and for a bite to eat. We drove a little bit downtown until we found a fast food joint, ate a quick meal, and proceeded back on the 101 South towards Halifax. I'm not gonna say much about my GPS Navigation device called 'Maggie the Nagging B@#$%', but lets just say that at one point it was better to watch the signage than to refer to its reference on the maps. Hopping back on the 102, we made our way North pass Truro and then jumped on the 104 towards Amherst. We did one site and in the Cumberland area, the tide had peaked at around 1pm. It was about 3:30pm when we got close to Amherst. It was still early in the afternoon, so we decided to take a left and head to Joggins. Might as well get as much rock hunting done in a day, right? Dawson 1868a, p. 179 We made our way towards Lower Cove, a little ways North of Joggins. I parked the car close to the bridge that passes over Little River. Not long after we set foot on the beach and made it a few hundred meters heading North, my buddy Matt got a text on his phone from our friend Brian Hebert that lives in the area. We could see him run in our direction. He recognized my car that was parked at the bridge. I came to Joggins about 2 weeks before and the beach was very hazardous with all the flying rocks and harsh winds. The weathering of the cliffs since then was pretty extensive, as some of the trees and plants I had noticed then were pretty much covered in piles of loose sediment. I will make a post of that short trip very soon. We found some similar type of trace fossils at Joggins that we found earlier at Blue Beach across the bay. At this location, plant material was more prominent, at least visually. Horseshoe Crabs trace fossils Ferns (I rarely find any when I come to the cliffs) Ferns up close Old mine shaft from the old coal mines (turn of the 20th century) Branching Stigmaria (tree roots - lycopsids) with rootlets On to Part 3!