Ediacara Fossils

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Date of inscription: 11 January 2007

78 AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL HERITAGE Ediacara Fossil Site – Nilpena, South Australia

Today Australia is a hot, dry continent but hundreds of millions of years ago the landscape was very different – most of eastern Australia lay under shallow, warm seas.

Between 570 and 540 million years ago (long before Some scientists believe many of the organisms dinosaurs roamed the Earth) these warm seas were found at Ediacara may represent early algae, lichens inhabited by soft bodied organisms, similar to jellyfi sh. or even multicellular ‘experiments’, which bear little resemblance to organisms existing anywhere Some of these organisms became trapped in fi ne silt in the world today. There are many questions that in tidal fl ats and were fossilised as the silt turned to surrounding these ancient organisms; how they lived, stone. As sea levels changed, the seafl oor become part how they evolved and what creatures alive today are of what we today know as the Flinders Ranges in their descendents. South Australia, and the fossils found there formed part of a period known today as the Period. The fossils of this period resemble the fl atworms, Examples of these unusual and fragile fossils, including soft corals and jellyfi sh we know today and range in and Spriggina can be seen at the South size from a few centimetres up to a metre long. This Australian Museum. diverse array of fossil specimens includes anemones, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms and possible In 1946, while exploring for minerals, geologist ancestors of . Other forms resemble modern Reginald Sprigg discovered fossil imprints in rocks sea-pens and worms. around the low hills of the western Flinders Ranges at the old Ediacara minefi eld. Impressions of the largest early known , Dickinsonia rex, have also been recorded at Ediacara, Sprigg’s discovery was extremely important as it as well as fossils of what may be the earliest known was the fi rst time the fossilised remains of an entire ancestor of animals with backbones (vertebrates). community of soft bodied creatures had been found Dickinsonia is interpreted as a worm-like creature, and in such abundance anywhere in the world. Sprigg’s fossils of these organisms consist of a fl at impression, discovery was so signifi cant that fossils were named circular to ribbon-shaped with fi ne segmentation. after him and the Ediacaran Period was named after the location where the fossils were found. The Ediacaran Period is the fi rst geological period to be declared in 120 years and the fi rst to be named after The fossils preserved in the ancient seafl oor at Ediacara a location in the Southern Hemisphere. Covering an record the fi rst known multicellular life on interval of around 88 million years from 630 to 542 Earth that predates the . This diverse and million years ago, the start of the Ediacaran Period exquisitely preserved community of ancient organisms corresponds to the end of a world wide glaciation represents a signifi cant snapshot of our geological known as ‘Snowball Earth’ as well as signifi cant heritage. changes in carbon levels. Up until their discovery scientists believed that only The rapid increase in abundance, size, complexity organisms with hard parts, such as shells or skeletons, and diversity of life forms during this time shows that could be preserved in the fossil record. This discovery the earth underwent a period of major evolutionary gave scientists a new understanding of the evolution change. Around 30 other Ediacara localities are now of life on earth, as well as a better understanding of known globally including sites in Namibia, Russia, how fossils of organisms with soft tissue can become Newfoundland, Canada, UK and Siberia. Some of the preserved in the fossil record. greatest examples of this ancient biodiversity are found in Australia and Russia.

AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL HERITAGE 79