South Australian Museum - North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Biography

After a career teaching Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Australia, I have an enviable role in the South Australian Museum: to inquire into and explain evolution of early animal life on Earth.

My main field of research and interpretation is the palaeobiology and environmental setting of the oldest known animal fossils, the Ediacara biota. This work begins with the spectacular rocks and fossils of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, and extends fossil-bearing strata of the same age in Canada, the USA, the UK, China and Namibia.

I am keen to develop public awareness of the rich geological heritage of Australia in general and in particular the Flinders Ranges. This is being achieved through development of the South Australian Museum fossil gallery, preparing popular publications, and by calling for interpretation facilities in the Flinders Ranges.

My roles include:

• Development of the Ediacaran-Cambrian Section of Origin Energy Fossil Gallery
• Research of Palaeoecology of Ediacara Biota in the Flinders Ranges, Namibia and Newfoundland
• Interpretation and protection of geological sites in the Flinders Ranges
• Organization of Ediacaran-Cambrian fossil collections in the SA Museum
• Chair Neoproterozoic Subcommission of International Commission on Stratigraphy
• Member of state government committees on Fossil Protection legislation, Geotourism Initiatives etc.
• Part-time lecturing in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide
• Honorary Research Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, Monash University
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept of Geological Sciences, Queen's University, Ontario

Major Publications (Top 5)

Gehling, J. G., Droser, M. L., Jensen, S. R. and Runnegar, B.N. 2005. Ediacaran organisms: relating form and function. In: D.E.G. Briggs, editor. Evolving Form and Function: Fossils and Development: proceedings of a symposium honoring Adolf Seilacher for his contributions paleontology, in celebration of his 80th birthday: April 1-2, 2005, New Haven, Connecticut. pp. 43-67.

Gehling, J.G., Narbonne. G.M., and Anderson, M.M. 2000. The first named Ediacaran body fossil: Aspidella: terranovica Billings 1872. Palaeontology 43, 427-456.

Gehling, J.G., 2000. Sequence stratigraphic context of the Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia: a taphonomic window into the Neoproterozoic biosphere. Precambrian Research 100, 65-95.

Gehling, J.G., 1999. Microbial mats in terminal Proterozoic siliciclastics: Ediacaran death masks: Palaios , 14, 40-57.Gehling, J.G., and Rigby, J.K., 1996. Long-expected sponges from the Neoproterozoic Ediacara Fauna, Pound Subgroup, South Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 70, 185-195.