Mistaken Point Fauna : The Discovery of Late Precambrian Fossils found in Southeastern Newfoundland by S.B.Misra,student from India at Memorial University, retired from Kumaun University,Nainital in 1999 settled in Lucknow

Mistaken Point Fauna : The Discovery

In 1969, S.B.Misra, an Indian graduate student from Newfoundland's Memorial University (1966 - 69) published a paper that drew attention to some unusual fossils of previously unknown soft-bodied sea animals of late Precambrian age, on the surfaces of large rock slabs on the coast of Newfoundland near Cape Race, at a place called Mistaken Point

Misra was studying the previously unmapped area of Southeastern part of the Avelon Peninsula of Newfoundland . He was first to prepare and present a systematic geological map of the region, to classify and describe the rock sequence of the area and to work out the depositional history of the rocks

Mistaken Point on the World Map Mistaken Point, Newfoundland on the World Map.
During the course of geological mapping of the area, Misra discovered a rich asssemblage of the imprints of soft bodied organisms on the surface of argillites (mudstone) at Mistaken Point. The description of the fossil assemblage together with their mode of occurrence, cause of sudden death, ecological conditions and chronological position form part of Misra's thesis submitted at Memorial University of Newfoundland for the degree of Master of Science. The discovery was reported in 1968 in the NATURE published from London.

Misra described in 1969, the Mistaken Point Fauna in detail in a paper published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Boulder. Colorado. He described the fossil assemblage into four groups namely: Spindle-shaped, Leaf-shaped, Round lobate and Dendrite like. Each group was defined in terms of Distribution and Form, Sub-categories and Biological affinity.The paper was acclaimed by geoscientists throughout the World.

Geological environment of the fossil-bearing rocks and ecology of the animals that lived and died in the Conception Sea, were described by Misra in two of his subsequent papers published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America in 1971 and in the Journal of the Geological Society of India in 1980 respectively. He intends to publish his thesis of historical importance in the near future. He still has the original fossil bearing rock samples and numerous casts of the fossils with him. Those interested are free to contact.

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