Reginald Sprigg and the Ediacaran Period

The fossil was found by Reginald Sprigg in 1946 in the Ediacara Hills of the Flinders Ranges, SA. It is a fossil, in the South Australia Museum; Adelaide of the oldest life form known to science.

For almost a century, since the time of Charles Darwin, scientists had been puzzled by an evolutionary anomaly - that 600 million years ago complex life forms had suddenly burst forth on earth (the famous Cambrian explosion), but without any evidence of earlier, simpler forms that might have been expected. Sprigg found the missing link - the dawn of visible life.

Bryson reports that in 1946 Sprigg, a young government geologist, clambered up some rocks to find a piece of shade and a comfortable rock to lean against to have his lunch. As he idly stretched out a toe and turned over a hunk of sandstone and found the missing link to the origins of life.

Text largely attributed to Bill Bryson (2001) Down Under. p119