SPACING OUT: SPATIAL POINT PROCESS ANALYSIS FOR THE EDIACARAN TAXA ASPIDELLA FROM NILPENA STATION, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Individual body size and species abundance, particularly when placed in a spatial context, are fundamental properties for relating an organism’s life history to ecology. This information can help quantitatively describe habitat associations and reproductive methods for a discrete area. A series excavated fossiliferous beds from the Ediacara Member at the Nilpena Station National Heritage site in South Australia, allows the use of modern spatial ecological techniques to examine the abundant in situ Ediacara fossil communities. We expand on a combination of photogrammetry and spatial analytical statistics (e.g., L-Function, g-Function, etc.) refined by Mitchell et al. (2020), allowing for the comparison of body-size and spatial relationships of sessile Ediacaran taxa from various fossil localities. We apply these spatial analyses to three fossil beds, representing two of the four fossiliferous facies at Nilpena Station, that are each dominated by the holdfast genus: Aspidella. We find that the spatial distribution of Aspidella varies by bed, with different communities either quantitatively supporting previous theories regarding habitat association or having the potential to reveal reproductive strategies for these Ediacaran organisms.