- Where
- South-eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula
Newfoundland, Canada - Coordinates
- 46.63° N
53.16° W - Fossils
- About 565 million years old
over 10,000 specimens (the province) - World Heritage
- 17 July 2016
- Season
- 11 May to 16 October 2026
(guided hikes, booked ahead) - Getting there
- About 2 h by road from St. John’s
to Portugal Cove South - Best visited
- May to October (the reserve’s season)
- Advisory
- Canada Level 1
The walk out was long, over wet treeless heath in the fog, past old flat stones where somebody once dried fish, to a grey slab of rock tilted towards the sea. To begin with it was blank. Then the cloud thinned, the light came in low, and shapes rose out of the stone like ferns pressed in an old book, more than I could take in. Everybody whispered.
The short answer
Mistaken Point is a small headland at the south-eastern tip of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, and Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve protects the coastline around it. The province describes more than 100 bedding planes in its tilted mudstones and sandstones imprinted with fossils of the Ediacara biota, the oldest large, complex life-forms found anywhere on Earth; the Mistaken Point assemblage itself is 580 to 560 million years old, and the reserve, the province says, is the best place in the world to see a 565-million-year-old sea floor as it was. In July 2026 the provincial government counted over 10,000 fossil specimens there. The site was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 17 July 2016. The fossils can be seen only on a guided hike, booked in advance, from the Mistaken Point Interpretation Centre at Portugal Cove South, about two hours’ drive south of St. John’s.
Why it's worth knowing
When life got big. For most of Earth’s history, life was microscopic. The Ediacara biota, which lived from about 580 to 541 million years ago, when all life was in the sea, are among the first large, multicellular organisms, and at Mistaken Point they are preserved in place on the floor of a deep ocean, far below where waves or light could reach. More than 30 species make up the Mistaken Point assemblage, 20 of them in the reserve, most belonging to extinct groups with no living relatives, the province records. Ediacaran fossils also occur in Russia, Australia, China and Namibia, but the province calls the age, abundance and variety of Mistaken Point’s unique. The International Union of Geological Sciences named it in 2022 among its first 100 geological heritage sites, as “the best example in the world of an Ediacaran fossil community where life first got big”, Wikipedia records.
Pompeii in ash. Soft-bodied creatures rarely fossilise. These were buried where they lived by repeated falls of volcanic ash-rich sediment, which preserved the imprints of their soft tissue, the province explains; the ash also holds crystals of zircon, which let geologists date each layer precisely. Some of the slabs are so crowded that whole communities can be studied as they stood.
Flowers in the rocks. Local hunters and children knew the fossil beds long before scientists did, and the children called the shapes “flowers in the rocks”, the province records. In June 1967 Shiva Balak Misra, a geology graduate student from India at Memorial University of Newfoundland, mapping the coast with his field assistant Paul Thompson, recognised them; it was the first record of Ediacaran fossils in the Western Hemisphere. A spindle-shaped species, Fractofusus misrai, now bears his name. Fossil thefts followed the discovery, and local people and scientists organised to watch over the site until it became an ecological reserve in 1987, extended in 2003 and 2009.
The field notes
The name
The headland is named for a mistake. In the fog that often lies over this corner of Newfoundland, sailors took Mistaken Point for Cape Race, a few kilometres to the east, turned north too soon, and ran onto the rocks, Wikipedia records; the province says it is named for the navigational hazard it posed.
The guided hike
Only a guided walk with one of the reserve’s interpreters reaches the fossil surfaces, which lie in a Fossil Protection Zone; taking or trying to take a fossil is prohibited. The province describes the outing as three and a half to four hours, including a 30-minute drive in your own car to the trailhead, then a walk of 45 to 60 minutes each way, 6 km in all, over wet, uneven coastal barrens to Watern Cove and the fossil beds, past stone “fish flakes” once used for drying cod. Each tour takes 12 people, reservations are mandatory and tours are often full; sandals and dogs are not allowed, and tours may be cancelled in dangerous weather. In 2025, the province says, staff led 231 guided hikes with more than 2,700 participants, and close to 9,000 people visited the interpretation centre.
A frond-like Ediacaran fossil on the rock surface, with a Canadian cent for scale, September 2009.
Photograph: Alicejmichel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cape Race lighthouse, the neighbouring headland on the same road.
Photograph: Nlartist · Cape Race Lighthouse · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
- Book your place on the walk early, then pack for every kind of weather at once.
- Wear proper boots and follow the marked route. The cliffs arrive without warning.
- On the fossil rock, put your feet only where the interpreter puts theirs.
- Try to picture how long ago that sea floor was. (Made a valiant attempt. Wrote ‘longer than the list’ in the margin instead.)
- Walking back, find the old stones where fish were dried, and think kindly of whoever laid them out.
A Fractofusus. On the tilted fossil surfaces of Mistaken Point lie the imprints of Fractofusus, a spindle-shaped, frond-like organism of the Ediacara biota, about 565 million years old, which grew on the deep sea floor with no shell, no skeleton and no living relative, and was buried where it lay by volcanic ash. Its first known species, Fractofusus misrai, is named for Shiva Balak Misra, who identified the fossils in 1967. The imprints are shallow and best seen in low light, and they are looked at in place, with an interpreter, and left in the rock.
Tally, in the marginI had been told it would be small and faint, and it was, and I stood over it longer than over anything large I can remember. Only when I straightened up did I notice that it was not alone: the whole slab was crowded with its neighbours, and for some while I had been tiptoeing between them unawares.
Getting there
How to get there. By road. The Mistaken Point Interpretation Centre is beside Highway 10, the Irish Loop Drive, in Portugal Cove South, about a two-hour drive south of St. John’s, which has the nearest airport; guided hikes leave from there, and you follow the interpreter in your own car to the trailhead, the province records. The centre is run by a community non-profit, Mistaken Point Cape Race Heritage Inc., which charges a small admission for its exhibits, included for hikers.
When to go. In season only. In 2026 the reserve opened on 11 May and closes on 16 October, with the interpretation centre open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (provincial advisory, 8 May 2026). The province’s reserve page describes a daily tour leaving at 12:30, and its advisory of 30 June 2026 mentions both morning and afternoon tours, so check the schedule when booking.
What to arrange ahead. A place on a guided hike, booked through the province’s Mistaken Point booking channels well in advance: tours take 12 people and often fill. Then hiking boots, rain gear and layers: the province warns of a high chance of cool, windy, wet and foggy conditions together, and there are no toilets in the reserve.
Safety. The State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level (advisory dated 5 June 2026 in its feed, read 7 October 2026). The hazards are the coast’s own: cliff edges, slippery rock and mud, sudden fog, and a moderately difficult 6 km walk that the province does not recommend for people with leg injuries.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Mistaken Point?
Mistaken Point is a headland at the south-eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada. Its guided fossil hikes start from the Mistaken Point Interpretation Centre in Portugal Cove South, on Highway 10, about a two-hour drive south of St. John’s.
How old are the fossils at Mistaken Point?
The fossils of Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland are about 565 million years old, from the Ediacaran Period; the province dates the Mistaken Point assemblage to 580 to 560 million years ago. They are among the oldest large, complex organisms known.
Why is Mistaken Point a World Heritage site?
Mistaken Point, in Newfoundland, was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on 17 July 2016 for its fossils of the Ediacara biota: more than 100 bedding planes of ancient deep-sea floor preserving soft-bodied organisms about 565 million years old, buried in place by volcanic ash.
Can you visit Mistaken Point without a guide?
No. The fossil surfaces of Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve lie in a Fossil Protection Zone that the public may enter only on a guided hike with a provincial interpreter or with a permit. Tours take 12 people and must be booked in advance.
How long is the Mistaken Point fossil hike?
The guided fossil hike at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, takes three and a half to four hours in all: a 30-minute drive to the trailhead, then 45 to 60 minutes’ walk each way, 6 km in total, over wet, uneven barrens. The province rates it moderately difficult.
When is Mistaken Point open?
Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland is open seasonally: in 2026 from 11 May to 16 October, with the interpretation centre in Portugal Cove South open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided hikes run in that season and are often fully booked.
Who discovered the Mistaken Point fossils?
Shiva Balak Misra, an Indian geology graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, identified the Mistaken Point fossils in June 1967 with his field assistant Paul Thompson. Local children had long called them “flowers in the rocks”; the species Fractofusus misrai is named after him.
Why is it called Mistaken Point?
Mistaken Point, in Newfoundland, is named for a navigational error: in fog, sailors mistook it for Cape Race, a few kilometres east, turned north too early and were wrecked on the rocks. The province says the point is named for the hazard it posed.