UNESCO Welterbe

UNESCO-Welterbestätten weltweit

Miguasha National Park

Kategorie
Natural
Land
Canada
Einschreibungsjahr
1999
Kriterien
(viii)
UNESCO-ID
686

Beschreibung

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.