Laura MacNeil — Tuesday Oct. 5^th, 2021 Presentation

Title:

Reading our Island’s rocks: A step into life, land, and climate on Prince Edward Island 60 million years before dinosaurs

Description:

Prince Edward Island holds Canada’s largest record of the Permian Period, a time when reptiles, amphibians, and early coniferous trees dominated the landscape while simultaneously evolving to a changing climate. Remnants of 300 million-year-old life are continually being exposed every day along the province’s highly-erosive rocky shorelines, revealing many scientifically-important fossil discoveries that help piece together the life, landscapes and climate of the Permian World. Witness the plants and animals that existed on prehistoric P.E.I., and what discoveries you can make yourself while walking the shoreline.

Bio:

Laura MacNeil (M.Sc. geology) is an Islander and geologist who recently founded Prehistoric Island Tours, a guided tour experience that allows the public to learn about Prince Edward Island’s geologic history while getting up close and personal with real P.E.I. fossils. Laura’s business is designed to educate Islanders and visitors on the significance of our Island’s geology and paleontology, and allow the public to help identify potentially important fossils while they’re walking the province’s many shorelines. She also discovered the first 290-million-year-old Dimetrodon trackways on P.E.I.

Beaconsfield Carriage House, Corner West & Kent, Charlottetown.

To address COVID needs there are limits to crowd size so everyone must pre-register. To register, Contact Nicole Murtagh 902-218-2935 nicole_murtagh@hotmail.com

Laura Macneil discovered the footprints on this rock in Cavendish in May. (Isabella Zavarise/CBC)