Piecing together the puzzle of the Ediacara Biota: Excavation and reconstruction at the Ediacara National Heritage site Nilpena (South Australia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 513 ◽  
pp. 132-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary L. Droser ◽  
James G. Gehling ◽  
Lidya G. Tarhan ◽  
Scott D. Evans ◽  
Christine M.S. Hall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
National Heritage

scholarly journals BIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FROM THE PRESERVATIONAL VARIABILITY OF FUNISIA DOROTHEA, EDIACARA MEMBER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Palaios ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 359-376
Author(s):  
RACHEL L. SURPRENANT ◽  
JAMES G. GEHLING ◽  
MARY L. DROSER
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Cambrian Explosion ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Fossil Site ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Body Fossil

ABSTRACT The Ediacara Biota represents a turning point in the evolution of life on Earth, signifying the transition from single celled organisms to complex, community-forming macrobiota. The exceptional fossil record of the soft-bodied Ediacara Biota provides critical insight into the nature of this transition and into ecosystem dynamics leading up to the so-called “Cambrian Explosion”. However, the preservation of non-biomineralizing organisms in a diversity of lithologies goes hand-in-hand with considerable taphonomic complexity that often shrouds true paleoecological and paleobiological signatures. We address the nature of this taphonomic complexity within the fossiliferous sandstones of the Ediacara Member in South Australia. Utilizing the most fossiliferous outcropping of the Ediacara Member, located at the Nilpena Station National Heritage Ediacara Fossil Site, we conduct a focused, taxon-level biostratinomic characterization of the tubular organism Funisia dorothea. Funisia is the most abundant body fossil in the Ediacara Member, making the characterization of its preservational variability essential to the accurate interpretation of regional paleobiology and paleoecology. We describe remarkable biostratinomic complexity in all Funisia populations at Nilpena, identifying four distinct preservational variants of internal and external molds and four additional successive biostratinomic grades corresponding to loss of external characters. Synthesis of these observations identify the most robust preservational forms of Funisia for use in paleobiological interpretation and highlight the important impact that Funisia's high abundance had on regional paleoecology and on population-scale preservation in the Ediacara Member.

scholarly journals Biostratinomy of the Ediacara Member (Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia): implications for depositional environments, ecology and biology of Ediacara organisms

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 20190100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary L. Droser ◽  
Lidya G. Tarhan ◽  
Scott D. Evans ◽  
Rachel L. Surprenant ◽  
James G. Gehling
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Bedding Planes ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Fossil Site ◽  
Fossil Assemblages ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

The Precambrian Ediacara Biota—Earth's earliest fossil record of communities of macroscopic, multicellular organisms—provides critical insights into the emergence of complex life on our planet. Excavation and reconstruction of nearly 300 m 2 of fossiliferous bedding planes in the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, at the National Heritage Ediacara fossil site Nilpena in South Australia, have permitted detailed study of the sedimentology, taphonomy and palaeoecology of Ediacara fossil assemblages. Characterization of Ediacara macrofossils and textured organic surfaces at the scale of facies, bedding planes and individual specimens has yielded unprecedented insight into the manner in which the palaeoenvironmental settings inhabited by Ediacara communities—particularly hydrodynamic conditions—influenced the aut- and synecology of Ediacara organisms, as well as the morphology and assemblage composition of Ediacara fossils. Here, we describe the manner in which environmental processes mediated the development of taphofacies hosting Ediacara fossil assemblages. Using two of the most common Ediacara Member fossils, Arborea and Dickinsonia , as examples, we delineate criteria that can be used to distinguish between ecological, environmental and biostratinomic signals and reconstruct how interactions between these processes have distinctively shaped the Ediacara fossil record.

Wooden Footbridge in a National Heritage Site

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ueli Brauen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Know How ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Local Materials

<p>The forest management body Groupement Forestier des Agittes, which was creating a discovery trail at La Joux Verte, commissioned Brauen Wälchli Architectes to design a suspended footbridge from which walkers could enjoy a commanding view over the restored ruins of the former dam cutting across the valley. The footbridge was built according to the principles of sustainable development. Renewable and recycled local materials and regional know-how were employed in its construction.</p>

Ediacaran scavenging as a prelude to predation

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Gehling ◽  
Mary L. Droser
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Mats ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Localized Source ◽  
Oxygen Levels ◽  
Stem Group ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
Ecological Innovation ◽  
Large Predators ◽  
Ancient Ecosystems

Predation is one of the most fundamental ecological and evolutionary drivers in modern and ancient ecosystems. Here, we report the discovery of evidence of the oldest scavenging of shallowly buried bodies of iconic soft-bodied members of the Ediacara Biota by cryptic seafloor mat-burrowing animals that produced the furrow and levee trace fossil, Helminthoidichnites isp. These mat-burrowers were probably omnivorous, stem-group bilaterians that largely grazed on microbial mats but when following mats under thin sands, they actively scavenged buried Dickinsonia, Aspidella, Funisia and other elements of the Ediacara Biota. These traces of opportunistic scavengers of dead animals from the Ediacaran of South Australia represent a fundamental ecological innovation and a possible pathway to the evolution of macrophagous predation in the Cambrian. While the Ediacaran oceans may have had oxygen levels too low to support typical large predators, the Helminthoidichnites maker lived in and grazed on microbial mats, which may have provided a localized source of oxygen.

scholarly journals Bringing the Community Back: A Case Study of the Post-Earthquake Heritage Restoration in Kathmandu Valley

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stelios Lekakis ◽  
Shobhit Shakya ◽  
Vasilis Kostakis
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Management ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Western World ◽  
Kathmandu Valley ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Heritage Preservation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
The Commons

Heritage preservation is a resource-intensive activity nested among other processes in the public administration, related to identity building and touristic product enhancement. Strategies and schemata associated with heritage preservation sprang in the western world after WWII and they have been adapted, in the form of ‘heritage management’, in various contexts with questionable effectiveness regarding sustainability. Our paper discusses the case of the post-earthquake cultural, social and political landscape of the World Heritage Site of Kathmandu valley in Nepal. By reviewing the bibliography and drawing upon various case studies of post-earthquake heritage restoration, we focus on the traditional ways of managing human and cultural resources in the area as related to the modern national heritage management mechanism. We also examine how traditional practices, re-interpreted into a modern context, can point towards inclusive and sustainable forms of collaboration based on the commons. We shed light on the elements of an emerging management system that could protect the vulnerable monuments through community participation, adapted to the challenging realities of the Nepalese heritage and its stakeholders.

The Voortrekker Monument as Memory Institution

2019 ◽  
pp. 348-365
Author(s):  
Annie R Antonites ◽  
Johan Nel
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Central Memory ◽  
Architectural Heritage ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
White Settlers ◽  
Political Character

The Voortrekker Monument has been a central memory institution for Afrikaners since its conception in the 1930s. Built to commemorate 19th century white settlers moving into the interior, the Monument has for many years been appropriated by different groups for various purposes, including as an Afrikaner Nationalist symbol. Since the early 1990s, the Monument has made a concerted effort to change established perceptions and stigmas. The Monument's registration as a Section 21 Non-Profit Company in 1993 and declaration as National Heritage Site in 2011 were accompanied by a shift in focus from a political character to one where its aesthetic architectural heritage and tourism values are celebrated. These changes in character enabled and drove the expansion of the Voortrekker Monument heritage site as a memory institution. This chapter discusses the continued success of the Monument post-1994 as a national memory institution through the diversification of its visitors and programmes.

scholarly journals Why Walking the Common is more than a Walk in the Park

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nike Romano ◽  
Veronica Mitchell ◽  
Vivienne Bozaleck
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Coffee Shop ◽  
The Past ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
The Common ◽  
South African Higher Education

For the past few years, as concerned academics and educators in South African higher education, we have come together to meet/think/drink coffee/eat/discuss our research and teaching practices in a coffee shop that overlooks the Rondebosch Common, a public space and national heritage site. The Common invited us to take our thoughts for a walk and we embarked on numerous walking encounters that affected and troubled us in many ways. Our walks became research-creation events that surfaced the implicatedness of our white settler privilege. As we grappled with the complexities and ambivalences grounded in our relationality with this contested site, we were prompted to explore hauntology as a theoretical orientation for our pedagogical practices. Walking with/through the demarcated land that is surrounded by privilege in terms of buildings, services and residences enacted and materialised entanglements of the past/present/future histories. We felt an exchange of affect between those present, the ghosts of colonial and apartheid histories, and the implications for our ongoing teaching. Following Haraway's (2016) ‘staying with the trouble’ and Tsing et al.'s (2017) ‘how to live on a damaged planet’, the relationships between human and non-human continue to haunt us, as we grapple with the im/possibility of finding common ground in a country devastated by colonial and apartheid violences.

scholarly journals Political Issues of the Louvre's Internationalisation

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-168
Author(s):  
Marie-Alix Molinié-Andlauer
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Universal Museum ◽  
The Impact

This article focuses on the internationalisation of the Louvre since the 2000s. A flagship of French culture, it is, along with the British Museum in London, the universal museum of reference. The French state, through successive governments, has mobilised the Louvre, that is, the institution, as an intermediary in international agreements. This museum and cultural institution then become a real stakeholder in international relations. Thus, the whole point of our remarks is to analyse the issues and controversies surrounding the close relationship between the Louvre and the French State. The Louvre, a renowned French museum and heritage site, is now multi-spatial. This model responds in part to a request from the French government to perfect the interplay of international influence. The internationalisation of the Louvre is thus understood not as the Louvre's reputation on an international level, but as the use of this heritage in international political strategies. By approaching this case in French international relations, we can first of all question the stakes of the transition from heritage to National Branding. In other words, to understand how in contemporary literature, heritage is transformed not only as a tool to retrace the past of a society, but also how it becomes an emblem that can be mobilised by States to claim a form of legitimacy from other States. The method, which is essentially based on interviews conducted within the framework of these, aims to answer two questions. What does the deterritorialisation of a national heritage such as the Louvre produce regarding international relations between the Louvre, the city of Abu Dhabi and in relations between France and the United Arab Emirates, then the impact that the Louvre Abu Dhabi can have at the local and regional level.

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