states: [canada]
category: natural
year: 1999
location: Gaspé Peninsula, Province of Quebec
region: Europe and North America
latitude/longitude: 48.1050000000, -66.3530555600
The palaeontological site of Miguasha National Park, in south-eastern Quebec on the southern coast of the Gaspé peninsula, is considered to be the world's most outstanding illustration of the Devonian Period known as the 'Age of Fishes'. Dating from 370 million years ago, the Upper Devonian Escuminac Formation represented here contains five of the six fossil fish groups associated with this period. Its significance stems from the discovery there of the highest number and best-preserved fossil specimens of the lobe-finned fishes that gave rise to the first four-legged, air-breathing terrestrial vertebrates – the tetrapods.
Copyright © 1992 - 2024 UNESCO/World Heritage Centre. All rights reserved.