Grazing family prepares to leave Nilpena National Park after 43 years

ABC NEWS (Australia)

For a quarter of a century, an American palaeontologist and her family have been uncovering fossils dating back to the dawn of animal existence on a pastoral property in South Australia's flinders ranges. Nilpena has now transitioned to a national park, and after 43 years, the grazing family is preparing to leave.

Transcript

00:00In the Flinders Ranges, 530 kilometres north of Adelaide, American paleontologist Dr. Mary

00:12Droser returns to the hills that have enthralled her for a quarter of a century.

00:20While it's hard to imagine now, 550 million years ago this was an ocean, and the creatures

00:28that lived on the sea floor have left their mark.

00:38These rocks capture the dawn of animal life, and so imagine turning over a rock and having

00:46those fossils see the light of day the first time in over half a billion years.

00:50I think dirt is good for you.

00:52Well, you have enough here.

00:54I first met Mary and her family 12 years ago at Nilpina Station's Rustic Shearer's Quarters.

01:01It's been their home away from home since Mary's kids were in nappies.

01:05Look at that.

01:06As the University of California professor and her team peeled back the layers of the rocky

01:13hills nearby.

01:14I get excited months leading up to even coming here, and once I'm here I can barely stand

01:18it.

01:19My first day here I'm always up at like five because I can't get out here fast enough.

01:22Last time I was here you were like, I can't contain myself when I'm here, I can't wait to get

01:30out there.

01:31What about now?

01:32I'm even worse.

01:33I think it is such a privilege to work here.

01:38There is no day in my life that is nicer than sitting on a fossil bed looking at fossils,

01:43having this as my view and working on these crazy things that we uncover.

01:51Those crazy things are fossils of soft-bodied organisms that existed before animals had skeletons.

01:58More than 40 different types of soft-bodied organisms have now been identified at Nilpina,

02:05which brings me to this track.

02:08So last time we were here, we followed a track to something that you thought was like

02:12the closest relative to us.

02:15Exactly.

02:16Did you find it?

02:18We did.

02:19We did find it.

02:20We found one at the end of a track and we found about a hundred on this bed that you're

02:25looking at right now.

02:26Okay, you know like the anticipation is high.

02:28I know, I know.

02:30And all I'm going to say is you're going to be like, is that really it?

02:33It looks like a tiny rice grain to be honest, but such a significant fossil.

02:38One of the most significant fossils we have here, if not the most, because it's our oldest

02:42relative and it's the oldest organism known that had a through gut, which means one way

02:48in and a different way out.

02:49I like things which aren't too showy.

02:51Right?

02:52Right?

02:53Subtle.

02:54You know, oldest ancestor was subtle, quiet.

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