Welcome to Bobcaygeon Wilderness Park. This eight acre park has three trails including one trail that is wheelchair accessible to view nature in The Land Between. Note: The Bobcaygeon Wilderness Park is open daily from 6:00am - 11:00pm
This earthcache will bring you to an interpretative sign titled “ Remnants of the Past”. Take some time to walk around and check out the fossils in the rocks check out the area.
Background:
Southern Ontario is known in geology circles as the “Land of Limestone”. Approximately 500 million years ago, Ontario was located much closer to the equator and was covered by warm tropical waters from the Iapetus Ocean. Marine life flourished, similar to the shallow marine reefs found off tropical shores today. After millions of years, sediment deposits containing broken bits of shells, coral, and small marine animals settled and compacted, forming sedimentary. Examples of typical fossils found in the Ordovician Limestone are shown in the image below.
Ontario is known for its Precambrian bedrock covered by Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, and Mesozoic aged rocks. Inside this bedrock is evidence of the ancient sea life that existed millions of years ago.
Devonian Age - 420 mya to 360 mya ( mya = million years ago)
•85% of the earth was covered with oceans and the climate was warm
•Life exploded and modern fishes appeared in the oceans
•First forests and amphibians appeared on land
Silurian Age – 445 mya to 420 mya
•Sea levels are higher than today
•Shallow seas covered Ontario and the climate remained warm
•First land plants started growing near the coasts
•First land habitats appear, both near river and wetland
•Early fish and wingless insects appear
Ordovician Age – 485 mya to 445 mya
•Ontario was located near the equator and was periodically covered by shallow, tropical seas
•A 500,000 year long ice age contributed to extinction of 85% of marine life and marked the end of the Ordovician age
Cambrian Age –540 mya to 485 mya
•First appearance of complex life represented by trilobites
•Sea levels rose steadily from 4m to 90 m
•Plants were simple one-celled algae that often grew together in large colonies, making it look like one plant
Precambrian age – 460 mya to 540 mya
•Microfossils that resemble algae, cysts of flagellates, stromatolites
Logging Requirements
To Log this Earthcache
Please send me your answers within 4 days of posting your found log. If there is more than one cacher in your party, include the names in your group. Only one person needs to send me the group answers. No spoiler photos, please. Found logs posted without proof you visited the site will be deleted.
- According to the information sign, what was the time period for the Paleozoic period?
- According to the information sign, what is the common name for Limestone?
- What is the most common type of fossil in the rock next to the sign?
- Take a photo of one of the fossils described on the sign. Some examples are Brachiopods, crinoids, or trilobites. Send me this photo via geocaching messenger and tell me what fossil you found.
- Optional: Photos included in your found log are appreciated but not required. Please do not add a spoiler photo identifying any fossil you found.
https://miningmatters.ca/docs/default-source/mining-matters---resources/ontario-mndm-guides/fossils/fossils-of-ontario.pdf?sfvrsn=ea0ba298_4
