Ediacara Hills

‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

“It could be the death of the museum,” says renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery, a former director of the museum.

Key Points:

“It could be the death of the museum,” says renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery, a former director of the museum.
“To say research isn’t important to what a museum does – it’s sending shock waves across the world,” she says.

What’s the plan?

According to the museum’s website, this skeleton crew will focus on “converting new discoveries and research into the visitor experience”.
Others have tackled global questions such as the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, how eyes evolved in Cambrian fossils, and Antarctic biodiversity.

What’s so special about a museum?

Their remits are different, says University of Adelaide botanist Andy Lowe, who was the museum’s acting director in 2013 and 2014.
Unlike universities, he says, the museum was “established by government, to carry out science for the development of the state”.

“They’re crucial for what goes on above; you need experts not second-hand translators,” says University of Adelaide geologist Alan Collins.
He wonders what will happen the next time a youngster comes into the museum asking to identify a rock.
The museum’s Phillip Jones now uses this collection in his research, delivering more than 30 exhibitions, books and academic papers.

Continuity and community

Without attentive curation and the life blood of research, the collections are doomed to “wither and die”, says Flannery.
That raises the issue of continuity.
In Flannery’s words, the job of a museum curator:
is like being a high priest in a temple.

Over Jones’ four decades at the museum, his relationships with Indigenous elders have also been critical to returning sacred objects to their traditional owners.
Besides the priestly “chain of care”, there’s something else at risk in the museum netherworld: a uniquely productive ecosystem feeding on the collections.
Here you’ll find PhD students mingling with retired academics; curators mingling with scientists; museum folk with university folk.
In the year ending 2023 for instance, joint museum and university grants amounted to A$3.7 million.

DNA and biodiversity

The museum has also declared it will no longer support a DNA sequencing lab it funds jointly with the University of Adelaide.
“No other institute in South Australia does this type of biodiversity research,” says Andrew Austin, chair of Taxonomy Australia and emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide.
“It’s the job of the museum.” The cuts come while the SA government plans new laws to protect biodiversity.

Elizabeth Finkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

565-million-years-old, some of the oldest UK fossils are eerily similar to famous Australian ones

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

These traces of the oldest complex ecosystems have been found in only a handful of locations around the world.

Key Points:

These traces of the oldest complex ecosystems have been found in only a handful of locations around the world.
The fossils were made by soft-bodied creatures covered by sand, creating impressions of their squashed remains imprinted into rock.
Now, we can confirm they were near contemporaries of the famous South Australian fossils.

A bookmark for rocks

Understanding the age of fossils is extremely useful for correlation and understanding how biological communities evolved.
Hence, volcanic ash acts much like a bookmark in a sequence of rocks, tracking the moment of eruption.

A clock for rocks

Scientists know the rate at which this change occurs, so by analysing the composition of the crystal we can use the zircon as a geological clock.
The more precisely we measure the amount of uranium and lead, the more precise the clock.
By carefully dissolving, heating and analysing zircon, we have dated the rocks in Wales to 565 million years (plus or minus 0.1%).

It’s life, but not as we know it

Ediacaran life is odd, with strange soft-bodied forms whose interaction with the environment is unclear.
Some appeared fern-like, others like cabbages, and yet others were similar to modern sea pens, resembling fat, old-fashioned writing quills.

A tropical paradise?

Half a billion years ago, Wales was not green and sheep covered and looked much more like a barren volcanic island. The Llangynog fossils are fascinating because they record a shallow marine ecosystem. In contrast, other famous fossil sites like Charnwood Forest in the United Kingdom and Mistaken Point, Canada record deep-marine conditions.

In the shallow waters of the chain of tropical volcanic islands that’s now Wales, a creature called Aspidella terranovica felt the warmth of sunlight and the sway of the tides 565 million years ago.
Alongside Aspidella, other disc-like organisms are preserved; these could represent the anchor for fern-shaped filter feeders.

Chris Kirkland receives funding from the Australian Research Council and various state government organisations within Australia. Anthony Clarke receives funding from the Australian Research Council.