Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia Possible Fossil

[Tsunamix_EDM]

Three years ago, I went to Peggy’s Cove to look around by the lighthouse and enter the nice shops and houses. At some point, I went around looking at the beautiful rock formations created by the glaciers that once covered Nova Scotia during the Pleistocene. I went to one of the very few erratics in the town, and checked underneath to see if I could find anything. I remember there was a cluster of pebbles and stones that were mostly cylindrical, but there were some fragments and shales there as well, however I am not entirely sure if they are endemic to the Mahone Bay / Halifax area aside from places like Little Tancook Island, which does have marine fossils on the beach cliffs dating around the time of the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian.

 

 Either way, I found a rock with a strange pattern on it. It was an oval-shaped marking with lines going up towards the edges of the shape in a diagonal pattern. It is definitely some sort of fossil impression, but I am not entirely sure what it was. I know that there are some marine fossils on the islands in the area that comprise of mostly shells, but this one looked more strange to me. I think it could be some sort of mollusk or brachiopod, like the ones that scoured the Australian seas during the Pre-Cambrian period. I unfortunately don’t have the fossil with me, so I can’t take a picture of it. If anybody thinks they know what this could be based on the description of the fossil and the geological/fossil range the place I found it is in, that would really mean a lot.

[Wrangellian]

I can't speak for anyone else but it might help if you could produce a sketch of the fossil you saw.

BTW I don't think there were mollusks or brachiopods anywhere in the Precambrian, unless you mean Kimberella which was apparently a primitive mollusk from the Ediacaran period. Anyway I doubt you will find anything like that in Nova Scotia.

[Fossildude19]

@Tsunamix_EDM

 

Have a look through these images, and let us know if you see something similar.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

On 3/30/2020 at 7:32 AM, Fossildude19 said:

@Tsunamix_EDM

 

Have a look through these images, and let us know if you see something similar.

Yeah! That's exactly what it looked like!

[dinosaur man]

Cool!  I found fossils like that when I went to Peggy’s Cove too!

[Tsunamix_EDM]

So, I looked at a few documentaries, and one of them, by David Attenborough called First Life, had a brief scene that took place in Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, close to Nova Scotia. There was a fossil impression of the earliest form of kelp or seaweed, called Charnia, which dates back as far as the Pre Cambrian, or Ediacaran Period. I guess that means that there must be some fort of formation that holds fossils from that specific period, but the land is so filled with deposits from the Late Silurian to the Early Holocene that the formations created millions of years before have been mostly submerged under the earth's surface, except for these two spots, which could prove vital in not only our understanding of the earliest known multi-cellular organisms, but the other places they lived aside from what is now Australia. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Tsunamix_EDM

[Wrangellian]

I wish we could see a pic of what you were looking at. Somehow I think, if there were Ediacaran fossils in that location, we would know about them already, as there is a lot of interest in the Ediacaran.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

There’s no doubt in my mind that what I saw was from that period in earth’s history. It was admittedly hard to notice the fossil impression because the color of the stone matched the rocks in the area, which are metamorphic, mafic, and igneous, not always sedimentary. There were no broken parts to the fossil, no separate pieces. It was perfectly intact. Had a circle with lines stretching down it, like tidal drifts in the sand, or the lines of chlorophyll you’d see snake their way around a leaf. If I was in charge of Fossilspots, I would put that place on the map. If there are more of these specimens in Maritime Canada, there could be more information about this period than we know now. It’s not just fossils from the Early Permian to the Pleistocene. The fossil record on the east coast is much older than people believe it to be. That’s it. It’s settled. I know what I saw. I know it is in the region’s geology. I know that the Ediacaran Period has fossils on the Eastern coastline of Nova Scotia aside from Newfoundland and Australia.

Edited April 15, 2020 by Tsunamix_EDM

[Tsunamix_EDM]

On 3/29/2020 at 4:31 AM, Wrangellian said:

I can't speak for anyone else but it might help if you could produce a sketch of the fossil you saw.

BTW I don't think there were mollusks or brachiopods anywhere in the Precambrian, unless you mean Kimberella which was apparently a primitive mollusk from the Ediacaran period. Anyway I doubt you will find anything like that in Nova Scotia.

I’ll work on a sketch in Sketchbook Pro. I do remember exactly what it looked like, so the best detail I put into this one picture is the best description I have of whatever I found. It’s late for me right now though, 10:52 PM to be exact. I’ll try and draw it in the morning.

[Wrangellian]

There are many Ediacaran sites around the world besides those two, but proximity to one is no guarantee. I'm looking forward to the drawing, being better than nothing and might be enough to trigger further investigation, but a clear photo is better and may be the only thing that can prove it to others... We've seen too many times here on TFF someone who insists they have X but it's just a pseudofossil.

But it would be pretty cool indeed if you've discovered a new Ediacaran site, or even an erratic from Mistaken Point(?).... but that still seems pretty unlikely. It's across the water, and if I recall correctly, the Avalon Peninsula and Nova Scotia are two different terranes so they are not geologically related.

[Ludwigia]

4 hours ago, Tsunamix_EDM said:

There’s no doubt in my mind that what I saw was from that period in earth’s history. It was admittedly hard to notice the fossil impression because the color of the stone matched the rocks in the area, which are metamorphic, mafic, and igneous, not always sedimentary. There were no broken parts to the fossil, no separate pieces. It was perfectly intact. Had a circle with lines stretching down it, like tidal drifts in the sand, or the lines of chlorophyll you’d see snake their way around a leaf. If I was in charge of Fossilspots, I would put that place on the map. If there are more of these specimens in Maritime Canada, there could be more information about this period than we know now. It’s not just fossils from the Early Permian to the Pleistocene. The fossil record on the east coast is much older than people believe it to be. That’s it. It’s settled. I know what I saw. I know it is in the region’s geology. I know that the Ediacaran Period has fossils on the Eastern coastline of Nova Scotia aside from Newfoundland and Australia.

I'm afraid that it's not very convincing to other "people", particularly to any experienced paleontologist/geologist, to just base your assumption on something which you saw, but didn't even at least photograph as evidence for your claim. I would however still be open to the possibility that your rock was a glacial erratic, since there has been enough research to show that Ediacarian strata are present on the East coast (for instance: Cape Breton Island, Mistaken Point). If you are really serious about this, then I would suggest you return to the site in search of proper evidence or at least get in touch with the Canadian Geological Survey for more information.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

4 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

I'm afraid that it's not very convincing to other "people", particularly to any experienced paleontologist/geologist, to just base your assumption on something which you saw, but didn't even at least photograph as evidence for your claim. I would however still be open to the possibility that your rock was a glacial erratic, since there has been enough research to show that Ediacarian strata are present on the East coast (for instance: Cape Breton Island, Mistaken Point). If you are really serious about this, then I would suggest you return to the site in search of proper evidence or at least get in touch with the Canadian Geological Survey for more information.

That could take time because I only head up to Nova Scotia once a year. Like I said before, I am working on a sketch of what I saw.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

[Tsunamix_EDM]

I am being extremely honest with you all. This is exactly what I found.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

Keep in mind, I'm not the only one who's found things like this in the Mahone Bay / Halifax area that look like this. Dinosaur Man has said so as well. If we both found the same fossils, then it must mean there's more to the region than just Early Permian to Late Pleistocene fossils.

[digit]

Ediacaran sites are of great interest to science (especially new ones where the species and preservation are yet unknown). If you truly believe what you saw was something like a Dickinsonia then I'd make a special effort to search for these again when you go back to Nova Scotia. If you can relocate what you were seeing before and take some photos (much more convincing to a scientist) then I'd bring this to the attention of paleontologists in the nearest university to this location. The discovery of a new site would be welcome by the paleontology community (but only with convincing evidence). Keep us informed of what you find when you make it back there. If it were me and I believe this is what I had seen, I'd make a special trip and spend the entire time searching for evidence.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Fossildude19]

From THIS WEBSITE:

 

 

 

Without photographic evidence, it would be impossible to confirm any theories of Ediacaran biota in the areas mentioned.

If you two found the same types of fossils, I would expect that geologists and paleontologists would have found them as well.  

What you saw must have been glacial erratics. 

 

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." 

 

 

[Tsunamix_EDM]

I’m so sorry. If I had the evidence with me, I would’ve shown it to you all by now.

[Tsunamix_EDM]

Regardless, at some point, I will attempt to go back to Peggy’s Cove. I want to look around there again and try to find anything else similar what I saw.

[digit]

Keep us informed when you do.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-ken

 

[Ludwigia]

And keep in mind that what you claim to have seen could very well have been a glacial erratic. I wasn't expecting you to head back up there tomorrow, which is why I suggested getting in touch with someone at the Canadian Geological Survey.

[Wrangellian]

I concur with the others. It may not be impossible that you found a Dickinsonia up there, but if you did it would be the first on the East Coast of North America (to my knowledge), and of great interest. If I saw something as clear and unambiguous as your drawing indicates, I'd be headed back there asap! Actually I would have done my best to collect it, if legal, or else report it to the Geological Survey, as Roger suggested - I wouldn't be asking about it 3 years later.....  But we'll be patient in waiting for you to return and report back when you can.

[doushantuo]

e.g.:

dipdfe.0176874.pdf

Highly regulated growth and development of the Ediacara macrofossil Dickinsonia costata
Scott D. Evans, Mary L. Droser, James G. Gehling

PLoSONE 12(5): e0176874. https://doi.org/10.1371/
journal.pone.0176874

Containing some quantitative underpinning of paleobiological insight

[dinosaur man]

I think I might know what it is.  Dickinsonia is from the group Erniettomorphs and some Erniettomorphs are known from the Cambrian to the Devonian not just the Ediacaran.  And the rocks at Peggy’s Cove are Devonian, but also to note down is mostly all the Erniettomorphs from the Cambrian to the Devonian are from the Northeast United States close to where Peggy’s Cove is.  Maybe it could be a species of Protonympha, an Erniettomorph like Dickinsonia found in Devonian rocks of New York State.

[Kane]

4 hours ago, dinosaur man said:

I think I might know what it is.  

Until photographic evidence emerges, there is really not much sense in speculating.