... shrouds true paleoecological and paleobiological signatures. We address the nature of this taphonomic complexity within the fossiliferous sandstones of the Ediacara Member in South Australia. Utilizing the most fossiliferous outcropping of the Ediacara Member, located at the Nilpena Station National...

... nomination. Ross Fargher My family has been grazing sheep and cattle in the area for five generations, stretching back to the 1850s. As a 4th generation pastoralist, I have continued that family tradition running cattle on Nilpena Station, adjacent to the Flinders Ranges in the semi-arid north...

... on their property. It is also home to one of the most fantastic and important fossil localities in the world—which Ross discovered. Over 15 years ago, Jim Gehling and I stood on Ross’s veranda at Nilpena Station and, while Ross played with a red back spiderwith the toe of his boot, we asked if we might work...

...Figure 1. Locality map and stratigraphic distribution of the Ediacara Member in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. A) Location of Nilpena Station and outcrops of the Ediacara Member (gray). B) Stratigraphic context of the Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite. Modified from Droser and Gehling...

... to a diverse array of taxa comprising a wide variety of morphologies (Droser and Gehling 2015 ; Droser et al. 2017 ). The National Heritage Ediacara fossil site at Nilpena Station provides the opportunity to examine successive bedding planes from two fossiliferous facies representing distinct habitats: (1...

... into the biology and taphonomy of the late Ediacaran seafloor within the new Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in Bathtub Gorge, northern Heysen Range. A 1 m 2 slab extracted from the gorge, now on permanent display at the South Australian Museum, has a death assemblage dominated...

...Fig. 2.— A , B ) Regional and facies-scale stratigraphic characterization of the Ediacara Member, respectively. At Nilpena Station, the Ediacara Member is represented by a range of facies recording deposition in shallow marine environments. Data included in this study were collected from...

..., R. and J. Fargher of Nilpena Station, D. and K. Fargher of Martin's Well Station, Graham and L. Ragless of Beltana and Puttapa stations and D. and K. Fels of Merna Mora Station. A. Seilacher is thanked for his insight and constant efforts to ensure the publication of this paper. Specimens have been...

... and Droser, 2013 ). Systematic excavation at Nilpena Station, on the western margin of the Flinders Ranges ( Fig. 1A ), has allowed reconstruction of hundreds of square meters of Ediacara bedding planes, facilitating detailed paleoecological and taphonomic characterization of in situ fossil assemblages...

... into this study due to uncertainties surrounding correlations between facies descriptions. Those datasets also largely originate from the Nilpena locality ( Fig. 1 ), a location not visited in this study. Table 2.— Characteristics of studied facies at Brachina Gorge, Bunyeroo Gorge, Moralana, and Wilpena...

... possible, with a Thommen Altitronic Traveller altimeter on the assumption that the dips are negligible in the sections measured. The accuracy but not precision of the altimeter was checked at the trigonometric station at the top of Dundas Hill on Swartpunt farm on 23 August 1996, when the altimeter...

... chondrite material. One such clast from Nilpena has an oxygen isotopic composition enriched in 17 O relative to CIs, with δ 18 O = 13.0‰ and Δ 17 O = 1.5‰ ( Clayton and Mayeda 1988 ), with evidence for even more 17 O-enriched phases present in another clast from DaG 319, with Δ 17 O values up to 4‰ ( Kita...

... Weekeroo Station and Miles (IIE) irons, in contrast to many glasses of more feldspathic compositions (see below). Olivine group [(Mg,Fe,Ca) 2 SiO 4 ] . Olivine is a major mineral in many types of non-chondritic meteorites [ Mittlefehldt et al. (1998) , Tables 7, 11, 13, 20, 24, 28, 31, 36, 43...

... Drilling Program, 304/305 , College Station, Texas ( http://iodp.tamu.edu/publications/exp304_305/30405title.htm ). Blair N.E. Aller R.C. ( 2012 ) The fate of terrestrial organic carbon in the marine environment . Annual Review of Marine Science , 4 , 401 – 423 . Bonneville S...