Fossil records obtain world heritage status on the island of Quebec

Anticosti Island, Quebec, has been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The agency’s World Heritage Committee announced today that the Gulf of St. Lawrence island is officially recognized on the United Nations list of places of outstanding universal value to humanity.

According to the UNESCO website, Quebec’s largest island constitutes the most complete and best preserved paleontological testimony to the first ma*s extinction of animal life, 447 to 437 million years ago.

The island will allow world-renowned scientists to study the best-preserved fossil record of marine life, spanning 10 million years of Earth’s history.

Hélène Boulanger, mayor of the municipality of Anticosti Island, describes the heritage designation as the start of a new era for the island, adding that its infrastructure must be improved to accommodate the expected influx of visitors.

The Quebec government announced in 2017 that it was ending oil and gas exploration on Anticosti Island to protect its natural character and support the province’s approach to making the territory a world heritage site.