Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914

Georgieva, Magdalena N., Little, Crispin T. S., Watson, Jonathan S., Sephton, Mark A., Ball, Alexander D. & Glover, Adrian G., 2019, Identification of fossil worm tubes from Phanerozoic hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 17 (4), pp. 287-329 : 10

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/14772019.2017.1412362
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10912122
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C0814B-9024-FFA3-3F59-F9194A0BFAA6
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914
status

Treatment

Family Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914 View in CoL

(vestimentiferan)

‘Figueroa tubes’

( Fig. 15 A–F, H, I View Figure 15 )

1999b Vestimentiferan tube worm Little et al.: 168, fig. 2b–d.

2004 Vestimentiferan tube indeterminate Little et al.: 545, figs 7.3, 8.1–8.7, 11.5

Material. FF-10, FFC-00, FFC-12, FFC-18, FFC-19, FFC-37, blocks of vent sulphides containing fossilized tube fragments, tubes often occurring singly. Collected by C. T. S. Little.

Occurrence. Figueroa massive sulphide deposit, San Rafael Mountains, southern California, USA. Franciscan Complex, Pliensbachian, Lower Jurassic ( Little et al. 1999a, 2004).

Description. Pyritic tubes are 0.3–6.9 mm in diameter, appear to have been originally rigid as they do not exhibit folds or depressions in their walls, and are fairly straight ( Fig. 15A View Figure 15 ). One long tube fragment appears to taper along its length ( Fig. 15A View Figure 15 ). Tubes possess collars ( Fig. 15B–D View Figure 15 ) which are large and flaring in some cases ( Fig. 15B, D View Figure 15 ), some tubes showing several collars in short succession ( Fig. 15B View Figure 15 ), the collars sometimes oriented obliquely ( Fig. 15C View Figure 15 ). The tube walls are ornamented with fine, bifurcating longitudinal and irregular transverse wrinkles ( Fig. 15A–C, E, F View Figure 15 ). In section, tube walls are preserved by colloform and framboidal pyrite, and it is unclear whether tubes were originally multi-layered ( Fig. 15H, I View Figure 15 ).

Remarks. These tubes group with siboglinids in both PCA and cladistic analyses ( Figs 22 View Figure 22 , 24 View Figure 24 ). The presence of large, flaring collars suggests that they are unlikely to have been made by chaetopterids. Serpulids and vestimentiferans both produce collars which are large and flaring; however, the pattern of fine longitudinal and irregular transverse wrinkles on tube surfaces suggests that the tubes are more likely to have been made by vestimentiferans, as fine longitudinal wrinkles are not commonly observed in serpulid tubes. The ornamentation of the Figueroa tubes also greatly resembles that of Ridgeia piscesae tubes ( Fig. 15G View Figure 15 ). Therefore, we infer that the most likely constructors of the Figueroa tubes were vestimentiferans.