by Scientists are still assessing the impact of post-tropical storm Fiona on fossils and other cultural artefacts buried on the Island’s shores.
According to researchers at UPEI’s School of Climate Change and Adaptation, the massive storm in September 2022 produced a record amount of landfall. In some places it was as much as one and a half to seven meters, compared to the usual annual average of 30 centimeters a year.
“From a fossil point of view, Fiona was very influential. It gives and takes,” said John Calder, a paleontologist who works for the provincial government as a consultant.
There was one casualty site on the North Shore of PEI where five very large boulders were covered with reptile tracks from 290 million years ago.
John Calder, a paleontologist who works for the provincial government as a consultant, says coastal erosion has also had some benefits. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
“It’s hard to imagine that the power of the sea could do that, but these things were at least a ton each and they were gone right after Fiona,” Calder said.
“It was just a horror. Because these were quite nice, different kinds of different creatures all on this one surface. He had a lot of true stories to tell.”
Calder said researchers were able to get good photos of the boulders between their discovery and the 2022 storm, but the artifacts themselves are lost forever.
Reviews of the past
At the same time, Calder said coastal erosion also had some benefits.
“Coastal erosion, which is the bane of everyone living near the shore, continues to shed more and more light on Prince Edward Island’s prehistoric past,” he said. “An incredible record has emerged – especially from Fiona.”
Calder said PEI is becoming a hot spot for paleontology in part because of recent discoveries from the early Permian period, before the age of the dinosaurs.
John Calder has a fossilized fern found on Prince Edward Island. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
Calder said coastal erosion also means it is important to constantly monitor changes along the Island’s shoreline.
“Sometimes a continuous path of footprints that goes into the cliffs, it’s picked up. Then a year or two, five years later, if we keep monitoring that site, we’ll find that there are more examples that the creature’s path continues to well into the cliffs…
An incredible record has emerged.
— John Calder, paleontologist
“Coastal erosion brings more and more fossil treasures around PEI, and it’s important to be vigilant all the time, to monitor.”
Calder said there are only a few trained paleontologists on the Island, so it’s important what the field calls citizen scientists to watch the shoreline as the erosion continues, “to be aware, to be vigilant, especially walking on the cliffs and on the shore.
“Keep your eyes peeled, and if you see something different, bring it to the attention of the PEI government. And then I’ll be contacted to see if this could be a fossil.”
This fossil was discovered in late 2023 on the shores of Hillsborough Bay. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
Calder cited the summer 2022 discovery of a complete fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric animal from about 290 million years ago as a case where scientists had to react quickly before the fossil washed away.
It was a local teacher who saw it at Cap Egmont and reported it.
“Each tide that came in was covering it, and cleaning pieces of it,” Calder said.
“From the time she got it, to the time we collected, it was only a few days, but it wouldn’t be another week or two. It was just that brief opportunity. “
Another view of the large fossil being removed at Cap Egmont in the summer of 2022. (Submitted by John Calder)
‘do not disturb’
Provincial archaeologist Christian Thériault agrees that coastal erosion is a major concern in preserving traces of the Island’s heritage.
“Fiona had quite an impact,” said Thériault. “While walking around the Island, I would see many known and unknown sites that were greatly affected by the storm, which put a lot of information at risk of disappearing if we didn’t try to protect it.”
The provincial archaeologist Christian Thériault says that the coastal erosion is a big concern for the work he and his team are doing, trying to preserve the cultural heritage of the Island. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
As sea levels rise, he said, “The Island is slowly disappearing. So much of this cultural and geological heritage is constantly disappearing.
“Our job is to try to identify it, and protect what we can, and maybe get it off the ground before it’s gone.”
Thériault said he wants Islanders to contact his department if they find anything that could be a cultural artifact or a fossilized echo of a past life form.
Some of the artifacts are preserved by the PEI archeology department. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
“After a big storm like Fiona, we had a lot of people contacting us because everything was being exposed everywhere across the Island,” he said. “The main thing is not to interfere [it]. Let us know where he is, what they found, so we can go and investigate.”
Thériault’s advice:
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Take a photo of the object and place it next to such a base item, to get an idea of its size.
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Document the exact location of the object, perhaps by dropping a pin on your phone’s map app.
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Contact the provincial archaeologist by email at archaeology@gov.pe.ca.
