The first fossils were found in the Flinders Ranges, in Australia in the 1940s. Reginald Sprigg, a paleontologist, published the first scientific study of Dickinsonia in 1947. Sprigg named the genus after Ben Dickinson, who was the director of the Mines of South Australia, at the time. In the study, Sprigg thought t he had found the fossil of a jellyfish. In 1956, Harrington and Moore classified Dickinsonia as Cnidarians.In 1966, they were classified as Annelids. Most Annelid fossils are quite different from fossilized Dickinsonia, but they resemble some fossilized marine worms. S. Manton contradicted this interpretation in 1967. Because of these incertainities, the discussion about how to classify Dickinsonia is still ongoing.