Deep Time Tours

08/29/2026

Some darlin' little slump folds in Little Catalina Harbour.

08/19/2026

Inside the Arch Rock.

07/23/2026

07/12/2026

Wild flowers on the Arch Rock trail.

06/23/2026

That said, not all things should be handled - you'd never catch Fred Durst or Avril Lavigne attempting to pry a limpet off of a rock.

In fact, despite their notable talents in other fields, limpets have an extraordinary grip and neither musician would find it easy to displace them.

Over time, many species of limpet will also grind a ring-shaped depression into the rock that they like the most. These depressions are called homescars and the limpet will return to them after they’ve finished grazing the nearby vegetation.

These ring-shapes are individual to the limpet and help them grip on and retain moisture when they’re out of the water at low-tide.

Look out for them next time you’re rockpooling!

06/22/2026

A sunny little Hiemalora to welcome in summer. Unfortunately this little guy that used to live in Murphy's Cove, Port Union half a billion years ago, was stolen or destroyed a few years ago. Locals like myself are vigilant but I would love to see regular patrols of the Catalina dome by professional park rangers, like they have at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve.

06/08/2026

Today on World Ocean Day Deep Time remembers the Iapetus Ocean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iapetus_Ocean where the Ediacaran fossils of the Bonavista Assemblage lived 565 million years ago. It disappeared 425 million years ago when it was crushed between continents. However, the Earth's oceans are really just one ocean, that existed then and now, with the continents moving under and around it.

The Iapetus Ocean (/aɪˈæpɪtəs/; eye-AP-ih-təs)[1] existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale (between 600 and 425 million years ago). It was in the Southern Hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia. The ocean disappea...

05/29/2026

For all the Minecraft fans on Fossil Friday...La la la lava P P P Pizza. These pizzaform fossils (Blackbrookia, Ivansheadia) were preserved by volcanic ash in the Ediacaran period. They took half a billion years to arrive so their free. To be fair they were delivered on a tectonic plate that traveled thousands of miles at the same speed that your fingernails grow. Little Catalina Harbour, Newfoundland Canada.

05/22/2026

For Fossil Friday a nice Charnia looking like an eagle feather. I'm guessing Charnia Masoni. Located in Little Catalina Harbour Newfoundland, it's about half a meter long. Ediacaran period 565 million years old.

05/14/2026

Throwback Thursday. The oldest picture of Little Catalina I know of. James Johnson and family on their stage near Alexander Rd. where Ben Johnson's shop and stage used to be. Taken by Robert Holloway around 1900. That's a motor boat in front. The first one in the harbour. The picture was taken from his schooner.