Mistaken Point is the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Newfoundland and Labrador that protects fossils from the oldest-known complex marine ecosystem.
The site preserves an exceptional assemblage of Ediacaran fossils in coastal rock exposures on the Avalon Peninsula. These organisms lived in the sea roughly 580–560 million years ago, long before the Cambrian explosion. Many were soft-bodied and left impressions on the seafloor that were later covered by volcanic ash, helping preserve their forms in exceptional detail.
The fossils include large, frond-like and disc-shaped organisms that reveal an early phase in the development of complex life. “Mistaken Point” is a geographic name, not a claim that the fossils were misidentified. Visitors must also distinguish the site from Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia, which is famous for Carboniferous coal forests and tetrapod fossils from a much later period.