This fossil site is located at the south-eastern tip of the island of Newfoundland, in eastern Canada. It consists of a narrow, 17 km-long strip of rugged coastal cliffs. Of deep marine origin, these cliffs date to the Ediacaran Period (580-560 million years ago), representing the oldest known assemblages of large fossils anywhere. These fossils illustrate a watershed in the history of life on earth: the appearance of large, biologically complex organisms, after almost three billion years of micro-dominated evolution. 

Mistaken Point-named for the navigational hazard it poses at the often-foggy southeastern tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula-is one of the world's most significant fossil sites. Situated between the town of Portugal Cove South and Cape Race, the 5.7 km2 Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve extends along 17 kilometres of coastline.

Imprinted upon over 100 of the bedding planes within Mistaken Point's tilted and cleaved sequence of mudstones and sandstones are fossils of the oldest, large, complex life-forms found anywhere on Earth. Known to scientists as the Ediacara biota, these creatures lived from 580 to 541 million years ago, when all life was in the sea.

To book a tour please call the Edge of Avalon Interpretive Centre at (709) 438-1011.