The Museum’s original Sprigg Ediacaran fossil collection – hailing from SA’s Flinders Ranges – is among the first 11 geological heritage collections to be ratified by the International Commission on Geoheritage.

The geo-collection lists museum collections that are of global importance due to their particularly high scientific, historical and educational relevance for geological sciences. The list was announced at the 37th International Geological Congress in the Republic of Korea’s Busan.

The Flinders fossils, imprinted on the ancient seafloor, reveal fascinating information about the first animal life on our planet – soft-bodied organisms, resembling modern-day jellyfish, flatworms, sea pens, and more.

The collection joins others from around the world, ranging from human and animal fossils from the Medieval and Bronze Ages in Georgia (including fossilised animal droppings!) to large Plio-Pleistocene mammals in Italy.

Senior researchers from the South Australian Museum, Diego García-Bellido and Jim Gehling, along with Museum palaeontology collections manager Dr Mary-Anne Binnie and University of South Australia Professor Jim Jago, advocated to have the collection included in the list.  

García-Bellido said its acceptance was recognition of how important the collection was for “our understanding of evolution on the planet”. The fossils are 555 million years old.

“There are only 11 collections at this stage, on the whole planet, which have been accepted by the Commission as the highest tier of collection quality – ranging from Antarctic meteorites in Japan to fossilised human remains in Spain going back as far as 1.4 million years,” said García-Bellido, who’s also an Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide.

“So, across the board of any collection, in any museum in the world, these are the 11 best in geological sciences. The Ediacara Biota is present in all continents, except Antarctica – for now – but the most diverse representation is, undoubtedly, in South Australia.”

More museum collections will be added to the geo-collections list over time but to be among the first named is a huge honour.

While the Sprigg collection is currently only accessible to researchers at the Museum’s Science Centre, other extraordinary examples from the period are on show at the Ediacara fossils gallery within the Museum.

South Australian Museum Chief Executive Dr David Gaimster said it was wonderful to have the Sprigg collection recognised on the world stage.

“This listing confirms what we already know: that the Museum, with this collection, houses some of the finest and earliest examples of multicellular animal life yet known on Earth.

“The fossils of these soft-bodied creatures were the basis for defining the first new geological epoch in more than a century: the Ediacaran Period.

“The ancient seabed displayed as a wall in our Museum remains in pride of place and continues to be used by palaeontologists today for further research.”

Background on Sprigg Ediacaran fossil collection

The Sprigg collection was assembled by the late South Australian geologist, Reginald Sprigg, who also founded the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Sprigg discovered the fossil imprints in rocks at Ediacara Hills in the Flinders Ranges in 1946. It was the first time fossilised remains of these soft-bodied, marine organisms had been found in rocks that were possibly older than the Cambrian.

Though Sprigg’s discovery was initially rejected by experts like Sir Douglas Mawson, his findings were published in the Nature journal in 1948. Their relevance to understanding the early evolution of complex life on the planet led to the establishment of the Ediacaran Period in 2004 – named in the location’s honour. Sir David Attenborough visited the fossil site in the late 2000s to film his documentary, First Life.

Well before dinosaurs existed, about 550 million years ago, South Australia and the Northern Territory constituted the eastern coast of Australia and lay under shallow, tropical seas. These seas were inhabited by soft-bodied organisms, resembling modern-day jellyfish, flatworms, sea pens, and more. Their imprints tell the story of the first complex life on Earth – among them, the earliest animals.

The full list of the IUGS First 11 Geo-collections

1.      Sprigg Ediacaran Fossil Collection, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Australia

2.      The Meteorite Collection of the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria

3.      The d’Orbigny Collection, Paris, France (mainly invertebrates and microfossils)

4.      Dmanisi Collection, Tbilisi, Georgia (human and animal fossils, stones – and fossilised animal droppings! – from the Medieval and Bronze Ages)

5.      Mineralogical Collections of the TU Bergakademie (Mining Academy), Freiberg, Germany

6.      The Pikermian collection of the Athens Museum of Palaeontology and Geology, Athens, Greece (Eurasian fossil fauna)

7.      Valdarno Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals, Florence, Italy

8.      Japanese Antarctic Meteorite Collection, Tokyo, Japan

9.      Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa

10.   Permanent collection of the Museum of Human Evolution, Burgos, Spain (human remains from the paleontological and archaeological sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca)

11.   Thomas A. Greene Geological Collection, Wisconsin, US

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