The Doushantuo Formation at Weng'an in Guizhou Province, South China, is best known for animal embryo-like microfossils preserved in phosphorites. However, this unit also contains a diverse assemblage of three-dimensionally phosphatized acanthomorphic acritarchs, which are useful in the biostratigraphic subdivision and correlation of the lower–middle Ediacaran System. These acritarchs can be studied using both thin sectioning and acid maceration techniques, thus have the potential to resolve taxonomic inconsistencies between acritarchs preserved in cherts and shales. This paper presents a systematic treatment of acanthomorphs (and related spheroidal microfossils) from the Doushantuo Formation at Weng'an. More than 40 distinct species are described, including the following new species: Asterocapsoides robustus n. sp., Knollisphaeridium? bifurcatum n. sp., Megasphaera cymbala n. sp., Megasphaera patella n. sp., Megasphaera puncticulosa n. sp., Mengeosphaera eccentrica n. gen. n. sp., Papillomembrana boletiformis n. sp., Sinosphaera variabilis n. sp., Tanarium victor n. sp., Tianzhushania rara n. sp., Variomargosphaeridium gracile n. sp., and Weissiella brevis n. sp. The Weng'an microfossil assemblage is dominated by Megasphaera and Mengeosphaera but shares some taxa that are characteristic of the Tianzhushania spinosa biozone and the Tanarium conoideum–Hocosphaeridium scaberfacium–Hocosphaeridium anozos biozone recognized in the Yangtze Gorges area. It may represent a transitional assemblage between these two biozones. The Weng'an microfossil assemblage also shares some elements with Ediacaran acanthomorph assemblages from Australia, Siberia, and East European Platform, indicating at least partial biostratigraphic overlap with those assemblages. Among the taxa described here, T. spinosa and H. anozos emerges as easily recognizable and widely distributed acanthomorph species whose first appearance may be used to define acanthomorph biozones for regional and global biostratigraphic correlation of lower–middle Ediacaran successions.

Classification and relationships of the Ordovician encrinurines Frencrinoides Lespérance and Desbiens and Walencrinoides Lespérance and Desbiens are poorly understood, with little evidence for monophyly of either genus. We revise the type species of both genera, F. capitonis (Frederickson) and W. rarus (Walcott), using new and archival material. We explore their species composition and phylogenetic relationships with a parsimony analysis that includes 17 well-documented ingroup species that can be coded readily, and which is rooted with Encrinuroides regularis Parnaste, the oldest known encrinurine. The results support monophyly of Frencrinuroides and Walencrinuroides, albeit with more limited species membership than proposed by Lespérance and Desbiens. Previous suggestions that both E. uncatus Evitt and Tripp and E. neuter Evitt and Tripp should be assigned to Erratencrinurus Kruger are also supported by our analysis, as is monophyly of Physemataspis Evitt and Tripp. New species are W. rolfi and W. tremblayi.

‘Virtual paleontology’ entails the use of computational methods to assist in the three-dimensional (3-D) visualization and analysis of fossils, and has emerged as a powerful approach for research on the history of life. Three-dimensional imaging techniques allow poorly understood or previously unknown anatomies of fossil plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates, as well as microfossils and trace fossils, to be described in much greater detail than formerly possible, and are applicable to a wide range of preservation types and specimen sizes (Table 1). These methods include non-destructive high-resolution scanning technologies such as conventional X-ray micro-tomography and synchrotron-based X-ray tomography. In addition, form and function can be rigorously investigated through quantitative analysis of computer models, for example finite-element analysis.

We present new records of chondrichthyans recovered from strata of Maastrichtian age of the López de Bertodano Formation, Seymour (=Marambio) Island, and from levels of latest Campanian age of the Santa Marta Formation, James Ross Island, both located in the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. The material from Marambio Island comprises an associated assemblage with the first records of an indeterminate odontaspidid different from Odontaspis, as well as the genera Pristiophorus, Squatina, Paraorthacodus, and the species Chlamydoselachus tatere from the López de Bertodano Formation. Also, the studied section provides a well-constrained age for several taxa already recognized in the López de Bertodano Formation only by scattered samples of Maastrichtian age for the first time. The assemblage from Marambio Island is representative of one of the latest environmental conditions during the end of the Cretaceous in the coastal seas of the Larsen Basin before major changes that began after the K/P boundary. In addition, the finds from James Ross Island comprise the southernmost records of the neoselachians Cretalamna sp., Centrophoroides sp., as well as the holocephalans Callorhinchus sp. and an indeterminate rhinochimaerid, extending the occurrence of some of these taxa into the late Campanian, being their oldest record of the Weddellian Biogeographic Province.

With the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin posed contention against his synthesis on the history of life. His dilemma specifically regarded that the geologically sudden appearance of complex shelly invertebrates at the Cambrian Explosion followed an incomprehensible absence of a long-standing gradual transition to such forms. Indeed, as quoted from Chapter 10 of the sixth edition, “To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to these assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer… the difficulty of assigning any good reason for the absence of vast piles of strata rich in fossils beneath the Cambrian system is very great… The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained” (p. 286–288). In the 155 years since this assertion, paleontologists focusing on the strata of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition have uncovered a rich evolutionary history prior to the radiation of animals, but our resulting discoveries have neither been without debate nor unraveled the intricacies suggested by Darwin's dilemma. While we are continuing to learn from both geological and paleontological records, the organisms, their expanding ecosystem intricacy, and the increasing complexity of their behaviors during the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods are yet not well understood. With rapidly growing data and ideas, this transition in evolutionary history has become one of the intellectually richest periods in our record of life on Earth.

The Mississippian rugose corals from Alabama housed in several museums in that state are revised on the basis of current knowledge of this subclass. Fifteen species belonging to 10 genera have been identified; three species are new, including Zaphrentites lacefieldi, Palastraea cullmanense, and Siphonophyllia alabamaense. Four coral assemblages characterize four stratigraphic subdivisions of the Mississippian in Alabama: Osagean, Meramecian, lower Chesterian, and upper Chesterian. Corals are abundant in some units but diversity is quite low in all assemblages. The level of endemism is very high, except for the lower Chesterian assemblage, which contains some western Paleotethyan forms. Two possible coral evolutionary lineages have been identified.

Silicified microfossils preserved in chert nodules of the Doushantuo Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China have great potential to improve the biostratigraphic subdivision and correlation of the Ediacaran System. This potential can be realized only if solid taxonomy is available. However, a systematic treatment of these microfossils (particularly acanthomorphic acritarchs) is lacking, greatly limiting their biostratigraphic potential. This paper presents the systematic paleontology of silicified microfossils from upper Doushantuo Formation (Member III) chert nodules at three sections in the Yangtze Gorges area. More than 90 species of microfossils are described, including 66 named taxa of acanthomorphs, seven named taxa of sphaeromorphs, 12 taxa of cyanobacterial filaments and coccoids, four taxa of algal thalli, and two species of tubular microfossils. Several acritarch species, including Appendisphaera clava n. sp., Mengeosphaera grandispina n. sp., M. stegosauriformis n. sp., Leiosphaeridia, and possibly Sinosphaera rupina, are shown to be multicellular organisms, consistent with the proposition that some Ediacaran acritarchs may be diapause eggs of early animals. This study supports the view that the Tianzhushania spinosa acanthomorph biozone is unique to the lower Doushantuo Formation in South China (and perhaps its equivalent in northern India) and that Ediacaran acanthomorph assemblages from Australia, Siberia, and East European Platform are younger than the Tianzhushania spinosa biozone. It is proposed that the first occurrence of Hocosphaeridium anozos, a species with easily recognizable morphology and wide taphonomic and geographic distributions, be used to define the second Doushantuo acanthomorph biozone succeeding the Tianzhushania spinosa biozone. New taxa described in this paper include three new genera (Bispinosphaera n. gen.; Yushengia n. gen.; and Granitunica n. gen.) and 40 new species: Appendisphaera? brevispina n. sp., A. clava n. sp., A.? hemisphaerica n. sp., A. longispina n. sp., A. setosa n. sp., Bispinosphaera peregrina n. gen. n. sp., Crinita paucispinosa n. sp., Ericiasphaera densispina n. sp., Hocosphaeridium dilatatum n. sp., Knollisphaeridium denticulatum n. sp., K. longilatum n. sp., K. obtusum n. sp., K. parvum n. sp., Mengeosphaera angusta n. sp., M. bellula n. sp., M. cf. bellula n. sp., M. constricta n. sp., M.? cuspidata n. sp., M.? gracilis n. sp., M. grandispina n. sp., M. latibasis n. sp., M. minima n. sp., M. spicata n. sp., M. spinula n. sp., M. stegosauriformis n. sp., M. triangularis n. sp., M. uniformis n. sp., Sinosphaera asteriformis n. sp., Tanarium acus n. sp., T. elegans n. sp., T. longitubulare n. sp., T.? minimum n. sp., T. obesum n. sp., T. varium n. sp., Urasphaera fungiformis n. sp., U. nupta n. sp., Yushengia ramispina n. gen. n. sp., Granitunica mcfaddeniae n. gen. n. sp., Osculosphaera arcelliformis n. sp., and O. membranifera n. sp.

Although diadematacean sea urchins (diadematids, aspidodiadematids, and micropygids) likely diverged sometime during the Jurassic, the lack of fossils representing this group has greatly hampered progress in understanding their evolution. No unequivocal Jurassic diademataceans have been described previously from North America. We describe a new genus and species, Sierradiadema kristini, from a single fossil from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Colfax sequence of the Mariposa Formation exposed in the Middle Fork American River drainage of the northern Sierra Nevada, California. The specimen, although not complete, reveals details of the spination and tooth morphology often lacking in Jurassic diademataceans, along with test architecture that yields information concerning the relative timing of important events in the origins of the diadematids in particular. We explore this evolution with a phylogenetic analysis of relevant clades with Jurassic times of divergence, finding not only that Sierradiadema n. gen. is the earliest known member of a clade containing the extant Diadematidae, but that it will stimulate ongoing discussion of the putative Jurassic origins of all the diadematacean groups.

Cranial endocasts, infillings of the skeletal void that once contained the brain and associated soft tissues, represent detailed anatomical structures that have long been the focus of paleontological investigation. We applied computed tomographics (CTs) in order to generate endocast models for the Paleozoic actinopterygian fishes Mimipiscis and Kentuckia, which serve as key representatives of anatomically primitive, early ray fins in analyses of early vertebrate relationships. The resultant endocranial models generally corroborate existing accounts of endocranial anatomy in these genera, drawn from descriptions of the inner face of the brain cavity. However, the endocasts also provide new anatomical details, the most significant of which are the presence in Mimipiscis of widely divergent olfactory tracts, small optic lobes, and anterior and posterior semicircular canals that extend dorsal to the roof of the endocranial chamber. By contrast, Kentuckia possesses a single, straight olfactory tract, wide optic lobes, and anterior and posterior semicircular canals that do not reach the dorsal surface of the endocast. In each of these features, Kentuckia resembles stratigraphically younger actinopterygians such as Lawrenciella and Kansasiella, whereas Mimipiscis more closely resembles sarcopterygians and other outgroups. This character distribution provides further support for earlier phylogenetic interpretations of these genera.

We used 57 morphometric characters to discriminate 17 extant and fossil Cupuladria species and analyzed their phylogenetic relationships in relation to extant Discoporella species. Data were gathered from 496 extant and fossil Cupuladria specimens ranging in age from early Miocene to Recent and distributed from the Caribbean to tropical eastern Pacific. A first series of discriminant analyses distinguished three morphological groups: Cupuladria with vicarious avicularia, Cupuladria without vicarious avicularia, and Discoporella. Further discriminant analyses identified 17 species of Cupuladria. Cladistic analyses of these three groups yielded four equally parsimonious trees. All of the consensus trees exhibited the same topology, dividing the 25 tropical American cupuladriids into four distinct monophyletic clades, including Discoporella, and are consistent with previous molecular phylogenies except that there are no molecular data for the CV2 clade. Diversification of species was higher in the CV1 and CV2 clades than CNV clade, and involved mostly Caribbean species. Cupuladria with vicarious clade 1 (CV1) includes: C. monotrema, C. pacificiensis, C. exfragminis, C. cheethami, C. biporosa, and four new species: C. pervagata, C. floridensis, C. colonensis and C. dominicana. Cupuladria with vicarious clade 2 (CV2) includes: C. multesima, C. incognita, and three new species C. collyrida, C. veracruxiensis and C. planissima. Cupuladria clade without vicarious (CNV) includes: C. surinamensis, C. panamensis, and one new species C. gigas. The stratigraphic occurrence of species is consistent with cladogram topology within clades. However hypothesized cladistic relations among clades are the reverse of their stratigraphic occurrence with younger clade CNV appearing as the hypothetical ancestor of the two older clades CV1 and CV2. More extensive collections of early to middle Miocene specimens of Cupuladria and Discoporella will be required to resolve this apparent paradox.

A new dataset of the highest quality specimens of fully articulated, juvenile and mature exoskeletons of the Czech middle Silurian trilobite Aulacopleura koninckii offers improved resolution of original morphology by all measures considered. The degree of variation in both size and shape among later meraspid instars was constant, and suggesting targeted growth in both attributes. Size-related changes in the shape of the dorsal exoskeleton and of the segment-invariant cephalon were detected in the meraspid stage, but in the holaspid phase marked allometry was detected only in the trunk region, with the pygidium showing notable expansion in relative size. Meraspid cranidial allometry was subtle, with significant changes in instar form detectable only after several molts. This trilobite developed gradually throughout meraspid and holaspid ontogeny, with the synchronous cessation of trunk segment appearance and release at the onset of the holaspid phase. Precise development of shape and size occurs in the context of marked variability in the number of trunk segments at maturity, illustrating complex patterns of character variation within a species. A new systematic description establishes the synonymy of several subspecies with A. koninckii.

Recent description of the oral cone of Anomalocaris canadensis from the Burgess Shale (Cambrian Series 3, Stage 5) highlighted significant differences from published accounts of this iconic species, and prompts a new evaluation of its morphology as a whole. All known specimens of A. canadensis, including previously unpublished material, were examined with the aim of providing a cohesive morphological description of this stem lineage arthropod. In contrast to previous descriptions, the dorsal surface of the head is shown to be covered by a small, oval carapace in close association with paired stalked eyes, and the ventral surface bears only the triradial oral cone, with no evidence of a hypostome or an anterior sclerite. The frontal appendages reveal new details of the arthrodial membranes and a narrower cross-section in dorsal view than previously reconstructed. The posterior body region reveals a complex suite of digestive, respiratory, and locomotory characters that include a differentiated foregut and hindgut, a midgut with paired glands, gill-like setal blades, and evidence of muscle bundles and struts that presumably supported the swimming movement of the body flaps. The tail fan includes a central blade in addition to the previously described three pairs of lateral blades. Some of these structures have not been identified in other anomalocaridids, making Anomalocaris critical for understanding the functional morphology of the group as a whole and corroborating its arthropod affinities.

Impressions of soft-bodied Ediacaran megafossils are common in deep-water slope deposits of the June beds at Sekwi Brook in the Mackenzie Mountains of NW Canada. Two taphonomic assemblages can be recognized. Soles of turbidite beds contain numerous impressions of simple (Aspidella) and tentaculate (Hiemalora, Eoporpita) discs. A specimen of the frond Primocandelabrum is attached to an Aspidella-like holdfast, but most holdfast discs lack any impressions of the leafy fronds to which they were attached, reflecting Fermeuse-style preservation of the basal level of the community. Epifaunal fronds (Beothukis, Charnia, Charniodiscus) and benthic recliners (Fractofusus) were most commonly preserved intrastratally on horizontal parting surfaces within turbidite and contourite beds, reflecting a deep-water example of Nama-style preservation of higher levels in the community. A well-preserved specimen of Namalia significantly extends the known age and environmental range of erniettomorphs into deep-water aphotic settings. Infaunal bilaterian burrows are absent from the June beds despite favorable beds for their preservation. The June beds assemblage is broadly similar in age and environment to deep-water Avalonian assemblages in Newfoundland and England, and like them contains mainly rangeomorph and arboreomorph fossils and apparently lacks dickinsoniomorphs and other clades typical of younger and shallower Ediacaran assemblages. Fossil data presently available imply that the classically deep- and shallow-water taxa of the Ediacara biota had different evolutionary origins and histories, with sessile rangeomorphs and arboreomorphs appearing in deep-water settings approximately 580 million years ago and spreading into shallow-water settings by 555 Ma but dickinsoniomorphs and other iconic clades restricted to shallow-water settings from their first known appearance at 555 Ma until their disappearance prior to the end of the Ediacaran.

The Pliocene fossil porpoise SDSNH 65276 has extremely elongate mandibular morphology, unlike that of any marine amniote, and is superficially most similar to the living bird species known as skimmers (Rynchops sp.). Endocasts of the pterygoid sinuses and endocranial cavity were digitally segmented from high-resolution X-ray CT scans of the specimen to explore internal anatomy of functionally and phylogenetically important anatomical features of this specimen and odontocetes in general. The sinuses are similar in volume and shape to extant porpoise species, but the dorsal extension of the preorbital lobes are particularly elongate as in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). The cranial endocast also shows similarities with extant porpoises, but has much deeper interhemispheric fissures, which are filled by ossified meninges, particularly a deep falx cerebri and shallower tentorium cerebelli. Ossifications of these parts of the meninges may reflect faster angular accelerations of the head, deeper diving ability, or both. Penetrations of the endocranial cavity for cranial nerves and blood vessels are like those of extant porpoises. The internal skull morphology of this unique delphinoid sheds additional light both on its phylogenetic affinities and novel odontocete adaptations.

A new dromomerycine palaeomerycid artiodactyl, Surameryx acrensis new genus new species, from upper Miocene deposits of the Amazon Basin documents the first and only known occurrence of this Northern Hemisphere group in South America. Osteological characters place the new taxon among the earliest known dromomerycine artiodactyls, most similar to Barbouromeryx trigonocorneus, which lived in North America during the early to middle Miocene, 20–16 Ma. Although it has long been assumed that the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) began with the closure of the Isthmus of Panama in the late Pliocene, or ca. 3.0–2.5 Ma, the presence of this North American immigrant in Amazonia is further evidence that terrestrial connections between North America and South America through Panama existed as early as the early late Miocene, or ca. 9.5 Ma. This early interchange date was previously indicated by approximately coeval specimens of proboscideans, peccaries, and tapirs in South America and ground sloths in North America. Although palaeomerycids apparently never flourished in South America, proboscideans thrived there until the end of the Pleistocene, and peccaries and tapirs diversified and still live there today.

The Middle Permian tetrapod fauna of the South African Beaufort Group is taxonomically diverse and includes representatives of all major therapsid groups, including the earliest records of Eutheriodontia. In the Middle Permian, eutheriodonts are represented mainly by large therocephalians, which made up a large proportion of the vertebrate predators in these faunas. Here we describe the skull and partial skeleton of a large therocephalian from the uppermost Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone (AZ) of South Africa. A combination of features, including the short snout, presence of three to four upper postcanines and presence of teeth on the pterygoid processes, indicates that the new specimen belongs to the earliest-diverging therocephalian family, Lycosuchidae. The presence of a well-developed midline ridge on the ventral surface of the vomer indicates that the new specimen can be referred to Simorhinella baini, a species previously represented only by a tiny juvenile skull. The new specimen forms the basis for a taxonomic re-evaluation of the Lycosuchidae as well as of the geographic and stratigraphic range of the family. We recognize two valid species within the Lycosuchidae: the type species Lycosuchus vanderrieti represented by five specimens and Simorhinella baini represented by two specimens, with an additional 22 specimens currently identifiable as Lycosuchidae incertae sedis. Lycosuchid specimens range throughout the Tapinocephalus and Pristerognathus AZs; specimens of Simorhinella are restricted to the Tapinocephalus AZ, whereas Lycosuchus specimens are documented in both the Tapinocephalus and Pristerognathus AZs.

Small round pits and holes in fossil skeletal material are found in a wide variety of invertebrate substrates from diverse environmental settings. They are associated with parasitism, predation and commensal attachment. Four ichnogenera have been proposed for these trace fossils: Sedilichnus Müller, Oichnus Bromley, Tremichnus Brett and Fossichnus Nielsen, Nielsen and Bromley. Previous authors have established that Tremichnus is a junior synonym of Oichnus. Herein we show that Oichnus and Fossichnus are junior synonyms of Sedilichnus.

Sedilichnus, as defined herein, includes 10 ichnospecies. Sedilichnus spongiophilus, S. simplex, S. paraboloides, S. ovalis, S. coronatus, S. gradatus, S. halo, S. asperus, S. excavatus and S. solus. Consistent with previous work Sedilichnus ichnospecies are defined solely by morphological criteria and not by a priori assumptions regarding depositional environment or tracemaker. Thus, this ichnotaxon is recognized in both marine and continental settings on a wide variety of invertebrate skeletal tests. As is true with many ichnotaxa, Sedilichnus ichnospecies represent end-members in morphological spectra, however each ichnospecies is clearly differentiable from the others.

Sedilichnus spongiophilus are circular, non-penetrative pits in shells. Sedilichnus paraboloides are penetrative holes with spherical paraboloid forms and typically have larger external openings and smaller internal openings. Sedilichnus simplex are simple cylindrical borings that have both penetrative and non-penetrative forms. Sedilichnus coronatus differ from other forms by the presence of an etched or granular halo surrounding the boring. Sedilichnus gradatus have two concentric parts, an outer boring and an inner shelf of smaller diameter. Sedilichnus ovalis and S. asperus are both oval in outline differing in the presence of tapering paraboloid margins in S. ovalis and margins perpendicular to the substrate in S. asperus. Sedilichnus excavatus and S. solus are primarily non-penetrative and differ from other Sedilichnus by the presence of central, raised bosses or platforms. These two ichnospecies differ in the shapes of their external walls and the proportional thickness of the bounding groove.

In Ediacaran shallow-water dolomites of the Doushantuo Formation (ca. 570 Ma) of southern China, scarce phosphatized microfossils consisting of clusters of coil-like spheroids called Spiralicellula bulbifera and co-occurring spherical forms with helically arranged holes named Helicoforamina wenganica are interpreted to belong to the same taxon because both have a similar relative abundance and both, uniquely in the assemblage, exhibit a consistent dextral spiral feature—the oldest known fossil examples of fixed asymmetry. Thus, we interpret them as different stages of sexual and asexual life cycles in which the spiral structure was maintained throughout most of the developmental phases. While they can be placed with the acritarchs, we suggest they are a chlorophycean green alga, and like many Ediacaran macrofossils, may represent an extinct clade. This is compatible with the shoal-water marine depositional environment in which they lived, as it would have favored photosynthetic organisms over others kinds of encysting non-metazoan protists. This setting militates against their interpretation as putative embryos which has been put forward for a variety of forms co-occurring in the microfossil assemblage. The multiple affinities of the strikingly diverse biota remain far from resolved, but algal origins warrant further consideration.

Metazoans (multicellular animals) evolved during the Ediacaran Period as shown by the record of their imprints, carbonaceous compressions, trace fossils, and organic bodies and skeletal fossils. Initial evolutionary experiments produced unusual bodies that are poorly understood or conceived of as non-metazoan. It is accepted that sponges, ctenophorans, cnidarians, placozoans, and bilaterians were members of the Ediacaran fauna, many of which have uncertain affinities. The fossil Sabellidites cambriensis Yanishevsky, 1926, derived from the terminal Ediacaran strata, is the earliest known organically preserved animal that belonged to a newly evolving fauna, which replaced the Ediacara-type metazoans. Morphologically simple soft-bodied tubular fossils, such as S. cambriensis, and biomineralized, as contemporaneous Sinotubulites sp., are not easy to recognize phylogenetically because many unrelated organisms developed encasing tubes independently. Therefore, in addition to morphologic information, evidence derived from the microstructure of the organic wall and its biochemistry may be vital to resolving fossil origins and phylogenetic relationships. Here we present morphological, microstructural and biogeochemical studies on S. cambriensis using various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, which provide new evidence that supports its siboglinid, annelidan affinity. The late Ediacaran age of Sabellidites fossil constrains the minimum age of siboglinids and the timing of the divergence of including them annelids by fossil record and this could be tested using molecular clock estimates. The fine microstructure of the organic tube in Sabellidites is multi-layered and has discrete layers composed of differently orientated and perfectly shaped fibers embedded in an amorphous matrix. The highly ordered and specific pattern of fiber alignment (i.e., the texture of organic matter) is similar to that of representatives of the family Siboglinidae. The biogeochemistry of the organic matter that comprised the tube, which was inferred from its properties, composition, and microstructure, is consistent with chitin and proteins as in siboglinids.