Ediacara Conservation Park enlarged to protect prehistoric Flinders Ranges fossils

An internationally significant fossil site in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, believed to contain the earliest evidence of sexual interaction, is now part of the Ediacara Conservation Park.

The Ediacara fossils found near Nilpena Station, about 500 kilometres north of Adelaide, are more than 500 million years old.

They are some of the world's oldest examples of multicellular, complex organisms, described by some as the "dawn of animal life".

The fossils already have National Heritage listing, but the South Australian Government has signed a number of new agreements to give them further protection.

That includes expanding the national park, establishing a Flinders Ranges Ediacara Foundation, and reaching a deal with the owners of Nilpena Station which allowed the Government to buy 60,000 hectares of land at the site.

Advising that the agreements are a new chapter for the area, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall stated “they show how we can work with philanthropy in creating and managing a park, and bringing its wonders to visitors, schoolchildren and our community.

"These fossils tell us much about how the planet and life have evolved."

The agreement will cost $2.2 million, with more than $500,000 will come from philanthropists, mostly through the Foundation, which will also have a role in the ongoing promotion and preservation of the site.

South Australian Environment Minister David Speirs said the new land would be the centrepiece of a plan to secure UNESCO World Heritage listing for the Flinders Ranges.

The fossils were first discovered in the Flinders Ranges by geologist Reg Sprigg in 1946, in an area known as the Ediacara Hills, which now lends its name to a geological time period from 645 million to 542 million years ago.

Since the initial discovery, scientists have identified more than 40 species, believed to have been marine animals, feeding along the seabed.

They are considered so significant that NASA has funded ongoing research at the site to learn about how life might evolve on other planets.

US geologist Professor Mary Droser has been returning to the site for more than 17 years, and discovered one of the ancient animals, a tubular invertebrate, most likely reproduced through sexual interaction.

Professor Droser recently told the ABC “we've discovered a huge number of new animal forms here - really wacky weird ones and I have no idea what they were - but they're great looking and cool and we were trying to figure out what they were and how they lived.

"This is an extraordinary fossil deposit.

"It is one of the best fossil deposits of any age so not just that it's the unfolding of animal life but of fossils of any age and they need to be protected."

The exact location of the Ediacara fossils has not been widely publicised, as the fossils, exposed on open ground, are at risk of theft for sale on the black market.

Some fossils have been stolen, including a piece estimated to be worth up to $600,000 that was found in Japan in the early 1990s.

Images: The Flinders Ranges (top) and fossils from the Ediacara Conservation Park (below and middle).