Paleontology and geologyMetamorphosed sedimentary rocks of Cambrian age are exposed in and around Boston Harbor in eastern Massachusetts and in the far western part of the state. Outcrops in eastern Massachusetts contain fossil trilobites that more closely resemble Cambrian trilobites found in Newfoundland and Europe, not those found in the rest of North America. This is evidence that portions of eastern Massachusetts and what is now Europe were once part of the same land mass. These bits of eastern Massachusetts became attached to North America during an episode of mountain building in the Ordovician (the Taconic Orogeny). |
