The Champlain Sea has truly exceptional fossil assemblages, because of the unique marine environment they were situated in.  The close vicinity of the Laurentide ice sheet created varying temperatures, and salinities which are vividly displayed in the fossil record.  These circumstances create the perfect locality to study the effects of changing habitats, and geographic isolation.  The remains of cold adapted marine mammals allow us to make paleoclimatic assumptions which suggest a sub-artic phase.