Page 76 - DreamScapes Magazine | Fall/Winter 2025

P A S S I O N P U R S U I T S
Hunting for Prehistoric Reptiles
in Atlantic Canada
How a Prince Edward Island geologist transports visitors to the time before dinosaurs
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CAROLYN B. HELLER
MUST SEE
Look for the fossilized trees along the
beach, which represent an early Permian-
era forest that was likely buried in a storm.
THE SCENE
“We know so much about the dinosaurs, but
we don’t really talk about the strange crea-
tures that existed before them,” says Laura
MacNeil, walking along a secluded beach on
Prince Edward Island’s south shore.
MacNeil is a PEI-born geologist, science
educator, and founder of Prehistoric Island
Tours, where she leads visitors through the
island’s most significant fossil site. On these
1.75-hour beach walks, she explains how to
identify fossils—some perfectly preserved in
the sand—and shares stories of how PEI’s
striking red cliffs came to be. She points
out fossilized trees and details the discovery
of alligator-sized reptiles like Dimetrodon
borealis, with large sail-like spines that
inhabited the island 60 million years before
the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
THE BACKSTORY
Growing up on PEI, MacNeil says no one ever
talked about fossils. Even after earning an
undergraduate degree in geological sciences
from Queen’s University and an M.Sc. in
geology from Nova Scotia’s Acadia University,
she learned nothing about her island’s geo-
logical history. Yet after doing some research,
she says, “I was shocked to learn that the very
first Dimetrodon skull found in the entire
world was found here,” on Prince Edward
Island back in the 1850s.
MacNeil contributed to the island’s fossil
record in 2018, when she discovered a set of
footprints near Cavendish on the north
shore, which turned out to be fossilized foot-
prints of a Dimetrodon. The geologist
subsequently located a site on PEI’s south
shore with huge, fossilized tree trunks pre-
served in the sand, which is where she now
takes visitors on her Prehistoric Island Tours.
HITS
Prince Edward Island contains the most com-
plete record of the Permian period anywhere
in Canada, according to MacNeil. The Per-
mian era, when reptiles like Dimetrodon
would have evolved to walk on land, began
nearly 300 million years ago.
Prince Edward Island’s plant fossil record
is scientifically important, offering a window
into some of Earth’s early forest ecosystems
during the Paleozoic era.
THE TAKEAWAY
Why should we care about the fossilized
remains of trees and strange reptiles?
Looking at these long-ago records of early life
can help us assess how present-day climate
changes may impact us today. Perhaps geolo-
gists like Laura MacNeil can help us
understand how our own footprints might
one day be preserved in the island’s sands.
DS
TRAVEL PLANNER
Tours typically run June through mid-
October. Book at prehistoricislandtours.ca.
For more PEI travel information, see
tourismpei.com
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DREAMSCAPES FALL/WINTER 2025