The Devonian: Age of Fishes

• In search of our origins
  • Records of past life
    • The notion of geologic time
    • The history of the Devonian System
  • Witnesses to evolution
  • A lost world
    • Tectonic context
    • Paleogeography
    • Climate
    • A Devonian day
  • Life in crisis
    • The Late Devonian extinction event
• The plant world
  • The conquest of land
  • The first forests
  • The plants of Miguasha
    • Protobarinophyton
    • Archaeopteris
    • Spermasporites
    • Spores by the millions
• The animal world
  • Life in the sea
  • The diversification of fish
  • Toward the first tetrapods
  • The animals of Miguasha
    • A window through time
      • Representativity
      • Fossil quality
      • Specimens by the thousands
    • The food chain
      • Of predators and prey
      • Stomach contents
      • Coprolites
    • Invertebrates
      • The aquatic environment
      • Land-based communities
    • Vertebrates
      • Jawless fish
        • Anaspids
        • Osteostracans
      • Jawed fish
        • Placoderms
          • Antiarchs
          • Arthrodires
        • Acanthodians
        • Actinopterygians
        • Sarcopterygians
          • Actinistians
          • Porolepiforms
          • Dipnoi
          • Osteolepiforms
          • Elpistostegalians

Fossil digs and research

The clinking of rock hammers and the comings and goings of fossil hunters on Miguasha’s beach have become part of the daily scenery for local inhabitants.(96 kb) In fact, weather permitting, fossil digs have been going on almost continuously since the 1880’s.

For quite some time now, about 500 new specimens have been added each year to the collections at the Natural History Museum of the Parc national de Miguasha. The specimens are collected during systematic digs along specific sections of the cliff, or by chance sightings during patrols by the park’s conservation team. The museum collection now includes just over 10,000 specimens from Miguasha.

(80 kb)In the past, the main goal of fossil collecting was to gain information about a species and its anatomy. Now, fossil digs are much more systematic, and when a fossil is found, aspects other than just species and morphology are given high priority. Fossil hunters take very precise notes about the fossil’s location, the type of encasing sediments, its spatial orientation, its height within the cliff, etc. All these details, meticulously recorded, are clues that allow paleontologists to reconstruct the life of the organism and the environment in which it lived.

Whether the research is conducted on-site at Miguasha or in a laboratory elsewhere, the paleontological findings continue to help decipher the secrets of this unique fossil treasure trove and the mysteries of evolution in general.

Miguasha's laboratory

Picture Description
Pictures of laboratories and the Miguasha reserve.

Narration
Research continues at Miguasha, where secrets encased in stone are brought to light. Scientists are attempting to trace the origin of life on earth and understand its evolution.

Fossiliferous rock is subjected to painstaking work in the laboratories. Over the years, palaeontologists using modern technologies continue to study fossiliferous content and the sediments of Miguasha.

The fossils and collection of the Parc de Miguasha constitute a unique source of wealth for Quebec’s natural heritage, in addition to representing a World Heritage Jewel.

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Miguasha: A story written in stone

• The Gaspé Peninsula: A world of oceans and mountains
  • The birth of the Appalachians
  • The closing of an ocean
  • A sea of fossils
  • Faunal realms
  • Devonian lands in the Gaspé Peninsula
• The Miguasha Group
  • The Fleurant Formation
  • The Escuminac Formation
    • Geological characteristics
    • Localization systems
    • Biostratigraphy
    • An ancient estuary
    • An environment of exceptional preservation
• Of cliffs and men
  • The Seigniory of Shoolbred
  • A World Heritage Site
  • Miguasha fossils around the world
  • The geology craze of the 19th century
  • The first discoveries
  • Scientists come to Miguasha
  • Links to Scotland
  • Local fossil hunters
  • Erik Jarvik and the Prince of Miguasha
  • The birth of the Miguasha project
  • The 1991 International Symposium
• Le Parc national de Miguasha
  • Protecting a unique heritage
  • Fossil digs and research
  • The on-site museum

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Fossil digs and research
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© Miguasha National Park 2007

Title: Fossil digging in 2005
Author: Parc national de Miguasha
Sources: Parc national de Miguasha
Year: 2005

Description:
Preparation of an excavation site in the area of the cliff known to the people who work there as “The Channel”.

Title: The main collection room
Author: Canadian Geographic
Sources: Parc national de Miguasha
Year: 1997

Description:
Quebec paleontologist Richard Cloutier in the main collection room. More than 10,000 fish and plant fossils from Miguasha are kept here.