Québec / Québec Treasures / Drawing 10

Places, Traditions and Discoveries · Drawing 10

A fish preserved as a fossil

About 380 million years ago - the Devonian

Colouring illustration: A fish preserved as a fossil
An imagined, simplified fossil fish; no particular species or discovery is reproduced.

At Miguasha in the Gaspé Peninsula, fossils tell us about very ancient fish. The rock has kept traces of their bodies.

Look together

Where are the head and tail?

An idea to try

Gently press a leaf into modelling dough, then remove it. Look at the mark and discuss what it helps you recognize.

For the adult reading along

A little more to discover

Miguasha National Park in the Gaspé Peninsula protects a fossil site dating back about 380 million years to the Devonian period. Fish and plant fossils provide information about that ancient life. The site is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Collecting rocks and fossils there is prohibited to preserve this heritage.

The colouring-page fish helps children recognize a head, body and tail; it cannot identify a particular species. Present a fossil as a trace of the past that specialists study. A mark made in dough can introduce impressions, but is not itself a real fossil.

Sources and context

These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. Source titles appear in their original language; some linked pages are in French.

Source review: 2026-09-12. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.