Haootia

In 2008, scientists discovered one of the world’s oldest complex animal fossils along this popular walking trail. Over 560 million years old, this unusual organism would have lived anchored to the dark sea floor of an ancient ocean. Named Haootia quadriformis, this fossil is unlike any other found in the area, and is of great importance to our understanding of the origin of animal life.

Haootia contains the oldest evidence of muscular tissue ever found – the bundles of muscle fibres that would have allowed it to flex its arms and grab passing food particles can still be seen as impressions in the rock. Scientists think Haootia may be an ancestor of the cnidarians, a group of animals that includes jellyfish and corals.

Fossil Naming Convention Honours the Beothuk Language

Researchers Martin Brasier and Jonathan Antcliffe first referenced the Beothuk language in 2009 within paleontological research by naming a newly discovered Ediacaran fossil Beothukis. In 2014, Alexander Liu and colleagues used a Beothuk word when formally describing this cnidarian-like fossil. Liu et al. considered possible descriptive words, or words that describe particular anatomical features but the Beothuk words were usually very long or complicated to pronounce. Haoot, meaning ‘demon’, was fitting as it was short and suggesting an otherworldly appearance. This was especially significant given the interpretation of the fossil had not been seen in the fossil record until this point. The newly discovered genus was therefore named Haootia.