History of Cambrian investigations in South Australia with particular reference to the biostratigraphy

Abstract

The Mt Lofty and Flinders Ranges of South Australia have been compared with classic Cambrian sections since the earliest records of European colonists in the 1830s. Fossils, although long expected, were not definitively described until the discoveries of a local school teacher, J.G.O. Tepper, at Ardrossan in 1878, supported by Ralph Tate at the newly established University of Adelaide. Tate also sent fossils to the British Museum and, following the relocation of R.L. Etheridge, to the Australian Museum in Sydney for description. As a consequence, the first trilobites and archaeocyaths were described from Ardrossan and the Flinders Ranges in 1884 and 1890, respectively. Walter Howchin found archaeocyaths in the Mount Lofty Ranges in 1896 and later supported a major monographic study of archaeocyaths by T.G. Taylor (1906-1910), which highlighted the famous Ajax Mine section for the first time. Howchin's fieldwork also established the complete stratigraphic succession of Cambrian strata in the Mt. Lofty/Flinders Ranges, work that was extended by Sir Douglas Mawson during the 1930s. At this time, R.W. Segnit also appreciated the importance of sections in the Mt. Scott Range and recognised the unconformity at the base of the Cambrian, while R. Bedford of Kyancutta was one of the world's leading experts on archaeocyaths. After World War II, systematic geological mapping of the Cambrian commenced initially under the guidance of R.C. Sprigg who discovered Cambrian trilobites on Kangaroo Island. Sprigg also targeted the Cambrian as a potential petroleum source. Brian Daily completed a doctoral degree on the Cambrian of South Australia in 1956 and focussed his subsequent research career on its study. Since the 1970s, his students have also made a significant contribution to Cambrian sedimentology and stratigraphy. Recent decades have seen a significant increase in Cambrian palaeontological research.