Eardley Beach Site in Gatineau, Quebec

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From the SVP website:

"Tuesday, October 17, 2006
In the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene, the area around Ottawa was covered by a marine sub-Arctic inland sea. The Champlain Sea covered approximately 25,000 square km, filling a large portion of the St. Lawrence Lowlands in the United States and Canada with brackish to nearly normally saline water.

Fossils from Champlain Sea deposits are found in a number of localities, some preserving remains in mudstone nodules, and others as individual bones or shells in sandy deposits.

Marine, fresh and brackish water paleoenvironments are represented. Abundant material of barnacles, Arctic mollusks, plants and Atlantic Capelin are found, with rarer finds of starfish, smelt, Atlantic cod, lake trout and several other fish species. Leopard frog, birds, harp seal, bowhead and beluga whales and American marten fossils add to the interesting mix.

The day will start with a trip to LaFlèche Cavern in Quebec, the largest cave in the Canadian Shield. This cave formed about 12,000 years ago when the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated from the area, and is a source for some Late Pleistocene mammals and other vertebrates.

From there we’ll go to a picturesque picnic spot for lunch on Precambrian rocks in Gatineau Provincial Park. This site offers a great view overlooking the Ottawa River and a few Pleistocene localities. Fortified by lunch, we will visit two localities near the shore of the Ottawa River to collect nodules in Champlain Sea deposits, which may (or may not) contain fossils.

Although collecting will be permitted, the Canadian Museum of Nature reserves first right of refusal on any fossils found. "