Sea Cliffs and Fossils Ecozone

Spectacular coastal landforms and geology are showcased in the Sea Cliffs and Fossils Ecozone. Over thousands of years, the tides have sculpted Fundy’s ancient coast into sea cliffs and rock formations, enabling exciting internationally renowned fossil discoveries to be made.

Years of tidal activity in the Bay of Fundy have created some of the world’s most captivating and unusual landscape formations. The tidal action has carved dramatic cliffs, sea stacks, and caves in the sandstone in many parts of the Fundy coast. Elsewhere around the Bay, spectacular headlands of volcanic rock rise up hundreds of feet from sea level, boldly resisting Fundy’s relentless tides.

The following areas around the Bay of Fundy each represent an important chapter in the earth’s 500-million-year geological and fossil history.

Saint John, New Brunswick, The Fundy City

Early Marine Life – 450 to 600 million years ago

The City of Saint John, NB, features 600- to 450-million-year-old rocks from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, which pre-date the collision of the continents that led to the formation of Pangea. Fossils of early marine creatures called trilobites, which are distant relatives of crabs and other joint-legged creatures that preceded the emergence of land animals, have been found in Saint John. The New Brunswick Museum in Saint John showcases fossils from this significant chapter in the earth’s history and offers comprehensive interpretative displays of the region ’s geology.

Trilobite fossil, New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, NB

Hopewell Cape, NB

Carboniferous Conglomerate – 350 million years ago

Uniquely shaped reddish cliffs of 350-million- year-old rock conglomerate and sandstone comprise the famous “flower pot” rock formations at the Hopewell Rocks. This conglomerate was formed as rocks and pebbles, washed down from a regional mountain range, were compressed and cemented together over millions of years. During a later period of tectonic activity, these layers of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale were lifted up and tilted to a 30-45º angle. Vertical cracks or fissures divided the rock into large blocks, which Fundy’s tides have since eroded into sea caves and huge carved-rock formations. Low tide visitors walking on the ocean floor at Hopewell Rocks can see the evidence of this tilting in the layers of rock in the rock face; the vertical cracks which are the genesis of new rock formations; and the telltale high-tide marks along the cliffs.

Hopewell Rocks, Hopewell Cape, NB

Hillsborough, NB and Stewiacke, NS

Ancient Mammals – last two million years

The dinosaurs that had ruled the earth for over a hundred million years disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Their decline created an opportunity for a new group of animals to become the dominant land-based creatures: mammals. Skeletons of extinct “Ice Age” mastodons have been discovered at Hillsborough, NB, and Stewiacke, NS. While mastodons and mammoths no longer exist, they are wooly cousins of present-day elephants. The fossilized bones of Hillsborough’s mastodon are on display at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John. Mastodon Ridge, near Stewiacke, features a life-size reproduction of the mastodons from this region.

Hillsborough Mastodon bones, New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, NB