The Lagersatatte - A Fossil Motherlode

Let's Build A 'Paleo-Centre' at Blue Beach
Blue Beach Nova Scotia Canada
'A PALEO-MAVERICKS DREAM'

A "fossil lagerstatte" is a place where the evidence coming from the fossils provides a unique window into the past, making it invaluable to science. Lagerstattes are irreplacable and one of a kind. The term comes from the German word, literally meaning "place of deposit" - but in paleo it has come to mean "motherlode". 
(Photo credit: Gerald MacKenzie)
Blue Beach, in Nova Scotia (Canada) is the oldest Carboniferous fossil lagerstatte, with a wide array of fossil evidence that informs us about life roughly 350,000,000 years ago, when the first tetrapod groups began radiating into key terrestrial groups. 
(Photo credit: Google)
The evidence from Blue Beach is proven to be rich in not only vertebrate bones: it also contains a diversity of plants and invertebrates, and an amazing diversity of trace fossils.

Blue Beach presents the entire ecosystem and trophic structure in a way no other fossil localities of similar age does, and so deserves the designation 'LAGERSTATTE'. 

(Photo credit: Chris Mansky)
The photo above is of the giant fish-locomotion traces that have been grossly misinterpreted until now (see correction in Mansky and Lucas, 2013). Parts of this same trail have appeared in numerous different publications before now, and even the experts (e.g. Leonardi, 1983) have erroneously believed it to be the trail of a quadruped...

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Excitingly Old & Priceless
Location: 127 Blue Beach Rd, Hantsport, NS B0P 1P0, Canada

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