Current Research

Tree research - St. Mary’s University, NS Department of Natural Resources, local Joggins residents,and Victoria General Hospital (Halifax) are using medical technology (CAT scanning) to understand how bones become fossilised within, and are distributed throughout, the fossil trees of Joggins.
Microfossil evolution - JFI andMount Allison University have partnered on studying the evolution of microfossils at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.
Limestone provenance - JFI and Acadia University have partnered on research into the limestones of the Classic Section of the Cliffs.
Dendrochronology – the Mount Allison Dendrochronology Group has conducted research on dating the wood in the cliffs from the mines in order to get a more accurate date of when the first mines were built. See their recent paper here.
LiDAR scanning of the cliff face – COGS and Dalhousie University, in partnership with the JFI, are using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging: an optical remote sensing technology that measures properties of scattered light to find range and/or other information of a distant target) to scan the cliff face in order to monitor erosion of the cliffs. This has implications for management of the property and for monitoring exposure and erosion of fossils.
Trace fossils
- Taxonomy - St. Mary’s University
- Ichnology and depositional environments - Natural Resources Canada, St. Mary's University, and Dalhousie are collaborating to build a more complete documentation of trace fossils from the Joggins Cliffs. In addition to trackways, burrows constructed by soft-bodied animals will be used to delineate more specific environmental settings, especially the cyclic shifting
  between brackish and nonmarine deposition.