Significant Fossil Footprint Discovery in New Brunswick
During a summer vacation near St. Martins, the Graune-Gregg family made an unexpected and globally significant paleontological discovery: a set of fossil footprints. This find offers valuable insights into a poorly understood period of Earth’s history, highlighting the important role citizen scientists can play.
The New Brunswick Museum and the Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark are excited to announce this major discovery of tetrapod footprints within the Geopark in southern New Brunswick. These footprints are now subject to detailed scientific analysis, promising to reveal secrets about the enigmatic creatures that created them.
Dr. Paul Olsen, a vertebrate paleontologist from Columbia University specializing in the Triassic-Jurassic period of Atlantic Canada, is collaborating with the New Brunswick Geology team to study the fossils. He emphasizes the rarity of Late Permian fossils worldwide, making this footprint discovery particularly crucial for understanding continental life before the Latest Permian extinction event. While older Permian rocks (290 million years old) are found on Prince Edward Island, the younger Permian period in Atlantic Canada is primarily known from a small area in Quebec’s Magdalen Islands, which has yielded no fossils.
In August 2020, while searching for sea-glass near Quaco Head, outside St. Martins, New Brunswick, the Graune-Gregg family of Sussex—Patrick (Gregg), Gaby, Shawn, and Lukeus Graune-Gregg—came across the prominent fossil footprints.
Although the rocks at Quaco Head have typically been dated to the late Triassic period (around 230 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs appeared), geologists have long suspected that these strata might be older, potentially from the late Permian Period (at least 260 million years ago). This older period predates the largest mass extinction in the fossil record and the evolution of dinosaurs. Prior to the Graune-Gregg family’s discovery, no fossils had been found in these rocks, underscoring the significance of this find.
Matt Stimson, the New Brunswick Museum’s Assistant Curator of Geology and Paleontology, notes that fossil footprints are essential for understanding ancient animal life and biodiversity, especially when skeletal remains are absent. They are becoming an increasingly valuable tool for paleontologists studying the ancient biodiversity of New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada.
Through collaborative efforts involving the Graune-Gregg family, the New Brunswick Museum, the New Brunswick Geological Surveys Branch, Archaeological Services, and the Department of Natural Resources, the fossil site has been thoroughly documented using drone imaging, laser scanning, and traditional geological mapping techniques. During this process, additional sandstone blocks containing multiple species of fossil footprints were found by New Brunswick Museum Research Associate Olivia King and members of the Graune-Gregg family and were successfully recovered.
Catrina Russell, the New Brunswick Museum’s Interpreter of Geology, highlights the accidental nature of this important discovery. She commends the Graune-Gregg family for their responsible action in recovering the fossil when threatened by a hurricane and for promptly reporting it to the New Brunswick Museum. She also reminds the public about the legal requirement to report fossil finds in New Brunswick under the Heritage Conservation Act, emphasizing that this significant part of the Stonehammer Geopark could have been lost to erosion if not for their actions.
Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark, the first geopark in North America, encompasses a billion years of Earth’s history across over 60 geological and fossil sites, with more than a dozen accessible to the public. Its diverse landscape tells the story of continental collisions, ocean formation and closure, volcanic activity, earthquakes, ice ages, and climate change, spanning from the late Precambrian period a billion years ago to the most recent Ice Age.