Arumberia and other Ediacaran–Cambrian fossils of central Australia.

Problematic fossils are described from Late Ediacaran to Early Cambrian red sandstones of the Arumbera Sandstone, Grant Bluff, and Central Mount Stuart Formations in central Australia, within a new systematic classification of Vendobionta. Arumberia banksi has been one of the most problematic of Ediacaran fossils, at first considered a fossil and then a sedimentary or organo-sedimentary structure. Our re-examination of the type material and collection of new material reveals misconceptions about its topology: it was a recessive fossil on the bed top, protruding down from the counterpart overlying slab. The concave-up body was 3 mm thick and chambered above a diffuse lower surface, so not a sedimentary structure. Also re-evaluated is the discoid fossil Hallidaya brueri, here including "Skinnera brooksi' as its upper surface. A new species (Noffkarkys storaaslii gen. et sp. nov.) is a multilobed frond with regular, fine, trapezoidal quilts. Three new records of Trepassia wardae, Dickinsonia costata, and Ernietta plateauensis are reported from the Arumbera and Grant Bluff Formations. Reevaluation of palaeomagnetic and biostratigraphic data suggest an hiatus of 26 million years at the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary within the Arumbera Formation, but some of this missing time is filled by the Grant Bluff and Central Mount Stuart Formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]