Siboglinidae Caullery 1914
- Dataset
- Identification of fossil worm tubes from Phanerozoic hydrothermal vents and cold seeps
- Rank
- FAMILY
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Annelida
- class
- Polychaeta
- order
- Sabellida
- family
- Siboglinidae
description
(Fig. 6)
description
Description. Carbonate tubes from this locality were originally described by Goedert et al. (2000). They measure 1.1 – 7.0 mm in diameter, and are non-branching, non-agglutinated and not attached to other tubes (Fig. 6 A – C). Tubes taper slightly, and the walls of the majority of the tubes are smooth and lack ornamentation (Fig. 6 A, B), while longitudinal wrinkles are present in one small-diameter tube (Fig. 6 C). Tube walls are thick and multi-layered, and at times delaminated (Fig. 6 D), suggesting an originally organic composition. The tubes appear to have originally been rigid as walls are generally not compressed, both in hand specimen (Fig. 6 A – C) and thin section (Fig. 6 E), and fluorescence during CLSM analysis of the tube walls further suggests that the tubes were originally organic (Fig. 6 F).
discussion
Remarks. These tubes were suggested to have been made by vestimentiferans by Goedert et al. (2000), resembling tubes made by the genus Escarpia. Despite the tubes being largely unresolved in the cladistic and cluster analyses (Figs 22, 24), they closely resemble those of vestimentiferans owing to their smooth walls and columnar morphology. The diameter range of the tubes, as well as the hard, organic, mostly thick and multi-layered nature of the tube walls, are typical of most vestimentiferans. We therefore suggest that vestimentiferans are the most likely builders of these tubes, but this assignment is tentative due to the poor resolution of these tubes in the cladistic analysis.
materials_examined
Material. WA-CR LACMIP 16957, several large, straight tubes preserved in the same orientation. JLG 473, tubes embedded in carbonate matrix, thin sections of tubes only. Donated by J. L. Goedert. Occurrence. Canyon River, south-west Washington State, USA (47 º 18.18 ' N, 123 º 30.52 ' W). Seep carbonate within siltstone, Lincoln Creek Formation, lower Oligocene (Goedert et al. 2000; Peckmann et al. 2002).
vernacular_names
‘ Canyon River tubes’