On Saturday May 31st The Berwick YNC group headed out to Blue Beach in Avonport to look for fossils and WOW! We found a lot of fossils! Dr. Sandra Barr joined us to help us look for fossils and identify them along with 3 of her Geology students from Acadia. Sandra explained that the area we were searching in was from the early carboniferous period before the coal producing time of extensive vegetation. This was the time of the amphibian, before reptiles and a long time before dinosaurs! It was 350 million years ago! The great super-continent of Pangaea was just about to form at this time and Africa was close to touching Nova Scotia. The area was very geologically active with lots of earthquakes and the land would have been riddled with shallow seaways as the continents collided. Life would have been a mixture of fresh water and sea plants and animals.

The Blue Beach area would have been a muddy bottom shallow sea or lake area and this is why there are so many great amphibian tracks and other amazing fossil impressions. Some of the best fossils from this time period can be found at Blue Beach.

Thanks to Sandra and her Geology students for helping us to find and identify fossils!