Title: Mistaken Point Exhibit Public Opening
Location: The Johnson GEO CENTRE
Description: The Johnson GEO CENTRE will be launching it’s newest exhibit to the public on June 16th, 2011.

Mistaken Point is known world-wide for its remarkably preserved fossils, unique in several ways. The Mistaken Point fossils were preserved by being blanketed with layers of fine volcanic ash. Volcanic ash is ideal for radiometric dating, and this has enabled the Mistaken Point fossils to be dated at approximately 565 million years old — making them the oldest complex “Ediacara-type” fossils that have been accurately dated at this time. The volcanic ash has preserved large numbers of fossils on individual bedding planes, creating “snapshots” of what the sea floor looked like. This has allowed scientists to study the ecology of these organisms in ways that are not possible anywhere else. Study of the surrounding sedimentary rocks has shown that the Mistaken Point organisms lived in a deep-water environment, far below the depth to which sunlight or surface waves could have reached.