Ediacara Hills (/ˌiːdiˈækərə/ EE-dee-AK-ər-ə), also known as Ediacaran Hills, are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around 650 kilometres (400 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide. They are within the Nilpena Ediacara National Park.
The hills are known for being the location where significant trace fossils of a group of previously unknown lifeforms were discovered, and have given their name to the geological period known as the Ediacaran.
The area has many old copper and silver mines from mining activity during the late 19th century.[1] Mining was first reported there in 1888, with an area becoming known as the Ediacara Mines after more costeans were dug. Attempts to mine the area were carried out as recently as 1967 by C.R.A. Exploration, which used diamond drilling to explore the ground, but this was abandoned after they proved fruitless.[2]
As of 2012, the area was still able to be accessed for "licensed mineral exploration or mining activities".[3]
The hills also contain fossils of early multicellular life forms, the Ediacaran biota (lagerstätte), and have given their name to the Ediacaran.[1][4]
There are two separate fossil sites within the region which have heritage protection: The Ediacara Fossil Site – Nilpena is listed on the Australian National Heritage List, while the Ediacara Fossil Reserve Palaeontological Site, located 20 kilometres (12 mi) to its north, is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.[5][6]
The hills are located within the locality of Ediacara, named primarily after the range itself,[citation needed] and within the Nilpena Ediacara National Park. They are also sometimes referred to as the Ediacaran Hills.[7]
In respect of "the locality where well preserved Precambrian fossils of multicellular life were first found globally" the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the "Ediacaran fossils in the Ediacara Hills, Flinders Ranges" in its assemblage of 100 geological heritage sites around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as "a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history".[8]
The name "Ediacara" has a disputed origin from one of the Aboriginal languages near the Flinders Range area. It is first known to have been used during the middle of the 19th century.[9][10] Earlier Australian sources suggested that the "name 'Ediacara' or 'Idiyakra' may be derived from an Indigenous term associating it with a place near water".[11][a]
Another theory suggests that the term may be a mispronunciation of the two words "Yata Takarra", meaning hard or stony ground ("in reference to the flat Ediacara plateau of dolomite that forms the centre of the Ediacara syncline").[13] Supporting this latter contention, it has been argued that the word "has nothing in it that corresponds to any word for water in any of the local languages" and that local tradition "has it that the name meant 'granite plain', but, since there appears to be no igneous rock in the area, this could well refer to the hardness of the ground, rather than to its geological composition".[9] Adnyamathanha woman Beverley Patterson, who had heard stories since childhood about the fossils, said shortly before the opening of the national park in April 2023 that Ediacara was the Adnyamathanha word for the zebra finch, a bird endemic to the area.[14]
However, there are a number of complications in trying to establish the origins of place names supposedly relating to Aboriginal words, and there is no definitive answer for Ediacara.[15]