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UNESCO World Heritage status is the highest honour that may be bestowed on a palaeontological site. In addition to heightening conservation status, it confers international recognition of a locality's ‘outstanding universal value’ and often triggers the release of substantial regional development funds. Despite these incentives it is, perhaps, not surprising that only a handful of fossil sites have successfully navigated the World Heritage selection process. In this feature, we draw on our recent experience of developing a World Heritage bid for the Pennsylvanian ‘Coal Age’ locality of Joggins, Nova Scotia. As well as demonstrating the huge significance of Joggins, we hope that our findings will provide valuable guidelines for the assessment of World Heritage fossil sites in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Carboniferous Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Nova Scotia, has long been known for its extensive paleobiodiversity. The ichnofossil record at Joggins is less known compared to body fossils. The late citizen scientist Donald Reid (known as "The Keeper of the Cliffs") contributed significantly to our understanding of the fossil record at Joggins. In his extensive ichnological collections is a morphologically unique "shrimp shaped" cubichnia (resting trace). The trace fossil is associated with faint invertebrate trackways that lead up to the resting trace and verifies the identification of this specimen as an invertebrate resting trace. The trace fossil was recovered from the upper Joggins Formation (876 m above the base) and was found in fine-grained rippled sandstones that are interpreted to be from an Open-Water to Poorly-Drained Lithofacies Assemblage transition. Horseshoe crab walking traces (Kouphichnium) are well known from this trace fossil horizon. The trace fossil specimen also has examples of invertebrate resting traces Selenichnites and Rusophycus preserved in convex hyporelief, that are commonly ascribed to horseshoe crabs and crustaceans, respectively, when found in freshwater paleoenvironments. This stratigraphic interval has previously yielded body fossils of Pygocephalus shrimp preserved in organic rich limestones and sideritic ironstone nodules. The Joggins Cliffs have yielded an abundance of trace fossils ascribed to horseshoe crabs, yet only two of their body fossils. Pygocephalus shrimp body fossils are common at Joggins, yet no trace fossils have yet been assigned to this invertebrate and perhaps have gone unrecognized. We interpret the trace fossil to have been produced by a Pygocephalus shrimp based on its morphological similarities to known body fossils from the Joggins Formation that are found in proximity to the trace fossil horizon. This new trace fossil morphology likely warrants a new ichnotaxon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]