When animal life first attempted to make a go of it on this planet more than half a billion years ago, it lurched, sputtered and died. In a favourable climate still warming from the last ice age, weird sponge-like animals emerged on the drop-off at Arkaroola Reef in what is now known as South Australia. Their time was short lived – there is no further record of these life forms following the next ice age, the Elatina glaciation that turned the planet into “Snowball Earth.” The planet we now find ourselves on had to wait another 90 million years for the Ediacaran Period, animal life’s next big roll of the dice.
The Flinders Ranges, on Adnyamathanha Yarta (Country), are the best place in the world to see this story unfold. Something about the geology of these spectacular ranges and their arid
