After much research, this is the paper I have written on the find.

* My work was confirmed to be correct by a geologist from UNB but before I could save his comments, my computer broke down and I lost his document acknowledging Camillien's find..

The fossil was uncovered when a land owner was planning lots to sell; with roads, ditches, water works, etc. What caught Camillien's attention was what looked like a log, yellowish in color. It was found burried beneath some 3 to 4 feet of dirt. As soon as the sample was brought to light, it started to turn brown. I believe that this fact is crucial in classifying it as a plant fossil. * I had placed my sample in a plastic bag. When I opened the bag some days later, it smelled rotten!.

I already knew about calamites in Nova Scotia especially during field trips at Joggins...(Photo1), but these were hardened after being burried below miles of dirt and then being exposed to air; while Camillien's sample had not seen the light of day for some 300,000,000 years! It has not been disturbed by planetary changes since its submergence during the Carboniferous era! (Photo 2) (2)...though so many changes have occured since then...

Wondering why in the St-Jacques region, the calamites could have been undisturbed after being burried in the dirt, and not become hardened like those in NS, I found some clues in the "Carte routière et géologique du Nouveau-Brunswick et de l’Île du Prince-Edouard". Here it is noted that the St-Jacques region belongs to the Devonian Era, thus preceding the carboniferous era... the land being a composite of sand, sandstones, slaty rocks, conglomerates and limestones, deposited in shallow and/or deep water bassins. In this part of NB, the land is characterized by "intermediate elevated land interspersed by low land of the permo-carboniferous period". (3) And the land along the Rivière-à-la-Truite is such a low-land region.

Maybe, there is also the fact that Glacial Lake Madawaska, after the last ice-age, helped preserve the fossils without being exposed to the elements.

Calamites are part of the fossils from the age of carbonisation, or carboniferous Era. (4) This era pertains to 355 to 290 million years ago. It is in this time period that major coal deposits are found in eastern North America. In this time period, the Atlantic provinces were situated near the equator. (5) (Photo 3) Then, the land was mostly made up of fluvial plains and deltas.

No birds existed in this time period. The flying realm of animals were giant dragonflies (meganaura) whose wings span could be compared to today's eagles... and the dinosaures would not appear for yet another 65 million years! (6)

In order for the St-Jacques calamite fossil to be found in St-Jacques in 2005, it had:

1. to have been burried very soon after it fell;

2. to not have been disturbed by some geological or climatic changes... for millions of years!

3. ...and should also have been burried in shallow soil, and not be covered with many meters of deposits, so it could be found by Camillien in 2005!

Many meters, or even close to a kilometer of deposits, would have caused the fossil, like those found in NS, to become as hard as rock! It is quite appropriate that the fossil be found so close to a river bed that for eons has deposited layers of sediments that have covered the fossils and by the same, protected them from being broken up to pieces...

Towards the end of the carboniferous period, land masses were moving towards the equator, to later form the "Pangea" - meaning: 'one land'. This Pangea was spread out along the equator and knew a "monsoon" climate; that is, there were periods of extremely dry spells followed by periods of deluvial weather. The calamites could not withstand such extreme changes and their extinction was inevitable. The only remnants of the calamite era that can be found today is the equisetum, a small wild plant that grows about one feet tall, on the forest floor. Notably, today's ferns, or "fiddleheads" found in our forests today are the only remnants from the carboniforous era! "Tough little guys!" (6)

The calamites had a strait trunk that could reach some 10 meters high. They grew in bunches, much like today's bamboo, although they have no relations to the calamites. It's trunk had circular divisions from where the branches protruded. Between these, the trunk had parallel lines which makes it an easy fossil to identify. (6)

Calamites died after being burried under layers of deposits of mud and sediments which acted as a blanket and protected them from the elements.

Rock hard trunks of calamites, lepidodendrons, sigillaria can be found at Joggins today.

2. "Upper Carboniferous Fossil Flora of Nova Scotia", E.L. Zodrow and K. McCandlish, College of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, N.S., 1980

3. "Carte routière et géologique de Nouveau-Brunswick et de l’Île du Prince-Edouard", Société géoscientifique de l’Atlantique, publication spéciale numéro 2, 1985

4. "Info: Coal Age Fossils", Nova Scotia Museum, Dept. of Education & Culture, flyer

5. "Roches et fossiles, guide visuel", Selection du Readers’ Digest, Robert R. Coenraads, p. 64

6. Dépliant publicitaire: "Special place; Joggins Fossil Cliffs", NS Dept. of Education, #1193

7. "Roches et fossiles, guide visuel", Selection du Readers’ Digest, Robert R. Coenraads, p. 58

	(Planche 1) - Joggins, N.E. Fossils of calamites have been uncovered by erosion. (Photo - RC)
	(Planche 2) The red sands at Clark Head, NS... have the same composition as sands in Africa. (Photo -RC)
	(Planche 3) - Calamites

3,9 By - origin of life

3800-3900 my - oldest rocks (gneiss), in Isua, Greenland. (2)

540 my - Cambrian: shells,,,

410 my - plants

340 my - vertebrates

~ 300 my - Camillien's fossil!

64 my - dinosaures extinction!

60,000: oldest human ancestors (Africa)

50 000 - 60 000 my - Homo

	Site: Along Rivière-à-la-Truite, St-Jacques, N.B.) View North. Between the 2 telephone poles we can see the TC overpass, crossing over the Rivière-à-la-Truite road. The white plastic bag marks the site of the find.
	View South: Mt Farlagne ski slopes can be seen in the background.

Rachel Cyr

July 2006