ARTICLES
A Mop with Tentacles; the Nilpena Fossil Area (continued)
Tribute to Ross Fargher
Ross, like many other Australian farmers, realised the scientific
value of the fossils, and reported his discoveries to the South
Australian Museum. Since then he has assisted numerous fossil
teams explore and excavate the ancient sea floor for fossils. In
honour of his contributions to science a fossil was named after
him Nilpena rossi (Droser et al). When first shown the fossil, Ross
described it as a "a mop with tentacles".
Figure 5: Mary's mother Dorothea at work in the shearer's
quarters at Nilpena, Image ABC.
Other Ediacaran sites around the world often contain only one
or two examples of this bizarre fauna, whereas Nilpena seems
to have them all. So far Mary has identified 40 different kinds of
animals at Nilpena.
Among them are tubular fossils, found in clusters, which she says
are the first evidence of animal sexual interaction. She named the
species Funisia dorothea after her 87-year-old mother, who does
a lot of the support work for the team, including the cooking.
One notable creature at Nilpena is the world's largest Aspidella.
Aspidella consists of disk-shaped fossils, with concentric rings
and/or centripetal rays. The diameter of circular Aspidella varies
from 1 to 180 mm. Most individuals are between 4 and 10 mm,
but smaller animals would presumably have decayed before
they could fossilise. Other Aspidella take the form of ellipses, 3-8
cm long and 1-4 cm wide. Most have a central pimple. The rim of
all specimens is made up by ridge-edged rays and/or concentric
rings.
Figure 7: Nilpena rossi. Image Droser et al. 2014.
The Nilpena fossil field is not open to the general public, but has
been listed on the National Heritage Sites in South Australia.
References
Droser, M.L., Gehling, J.,G., Dzaugis, M.E., Kennedy, M.J., Rice,
D., and M.F. Allens. 2014. A new Ediacaran fossil with a novel
sediment displacive habit. Journal of Paleontology, 88(1):145–
151.
Figure 6: Aspidella terranovica, Photo ABC.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 4