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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]