John Calder found his first fossil (a fern from the shore of the Nova Scotia's Northumberland Strait) at the age of nine. "I was so excited," he remembers. "That's what started it all." Now a geologist and palaeontologist, he is presently studying the fossilised forest and trackways of Brule, in addition to his ongoing work piecing together the ancient ecology of Joggins.

John is still driven by the excitement of discovering fossils, and Nova Scotia's outstanding fossil sites give him the opportunity to use his imagination and be a "palaeo-detective". Most recently, he is helping to solve the mystery of the large new footprints that have been found at Joggins. He has also done palaeontological work with the Smithsonian and studied Dawson and Lyell's original specimens from Joggins at the British Museum, which he described as "spine-tingling!"