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 : 301-302

?Family Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914 (?vestimentiferan)

‘Troodos collared tubes’

( Fig. 10A–C )

1999a vestimentiferan worm tubes Little, Cann, Herrington, & Morisseau: 1028, fig. 2b, c.

Material. Kambia 401b, 4061, 4062; Kapedhes 2031, 2051, 2081; Memi 212b2, 2021; Sha 3011, Small worm tubes with collars, generally occurring with other similar tubes. Collected by C. T. S. Little.

Occurrence. Massive sulphide deposits. Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus. Turonian, Late Cretaceous ( Oudin & Constantinou 1984; Little et al. 1999a).

Description. Pyritic worm tubes 0.6–1.9 mm in diameter, which appear to have been hard, sinuous, non-branching and not attached to other tubes ( Fig. 10A, B ). It is not discernible whether or not the tubes taper. The tubes possess short collars which are sometimes slightly flaring and at times are positioned at an oblique angle relative to the tube ( Fig. 10C ). The tube surface between adjacent collars appears smooth and unornamented ( Fig. 10B ).

Remarks. The similarity of these tubes to those made by vestimentiferans was highlighted by Little et al. (1999a), in particular to the spiralling tubes of Alaysia spiralis . Siboglinid, chaetopterid and serpulid tubes may all possess collars and occur at vents, while siboglinid and serpulid tubes may both be highly spiralling. Although the cladistic analysis grouped these tubes with siboglinids when more homoplasy was allowed ( Fig. 23B ), they cluster near serpulids within the PCA plot ( Fig. 21 ). Although small, the collars of the tubes are at times flaring and attached at an oblique angle with respect to the tube, which are features more readily observable on siboglinid tubes (those of vestimentiferans and frenulates). These tubes are therefore tentatively suggested to have been made by vestimentiferans rather than serpulids.

Figures

Figure 10. Tubes from the Turonian of Cyprus. A–C, ‘Troodos collared tubes’; A, B, Kambia 4061 and Memi 212b2, respectively, sinuous worm tubes with collars; C, Kambia 401b, worm tube with collar attached at an oblique angle. D, E, ‘Troodos wrinkled tubes’, Kapedhes 2101 and 204b, respectively, worm tubes bearing longitudinal and transverse wrinkles. F, G, ‘Troodos attached tubes’, Memi 2021 and Kinousa 2023, respectively, sinuous tubes that appear attached to a surface, tubes in F bearing fine parallel transverse wrinkles. Scale bars: A–D, F, G = 1 mm; E = 0. 5 mm.

Figure 21. Principal coordinate analysis plot of modern and fossil annelid tubes, based on the 48 characters scored for this study. Fossils (grey crosses): 1. Yamankasia rifeia; 2, Eoalvinellodes annulatus; 3, ‘Sibay tubes’; 4, Tevidestus serriformis; 5, ‘Figueroa tubes’; 6, ‘Sassenfjorden area tubes’; 7, ‘Cold Fork Cottonwood Creek tubes’; 8, ‘Prince Patrick tubes’; 9, ‘Ellef Ringnes tubes’; 10, ‘Troodos attached tubes’; 11, ‘Troodos wrinkled tubes’; 12, ‘Troodos collared tubes’; 13, ‘Okukinenbetsu yellow tubes’; 14, ‘Okukinenbetsu brown tubes’; 15, ‘Omagari tubes’; 16, ‘Canyon River tubes’; 17, ‘Murdock Creek tubes’; 18, ‘West Fork Satsop River tubes’; 19, Serpulidae sp., ‘Bexhaven’; 20, ‘Upper Waiau River tubes’; 21, ‘Rocky Knob tubes’. Modern tubes: Chaetopteridae (orange dots): 22, Chaetopterus cf. variopedatus; 23, Chaetopteridae id83; 24, Phyllochaetopterus polus; 25, P. gigas; 26, P. claparedii; 27, P. prolifica; 28, P. socialis; 29, Spiochetopterus izuensis; 30, S. sagamiensis; 31, S. costarum; 32, S. typicus; 33, Mesochaetopterus taylori. Siboglinidae, frenulata (dark blue filled triangles): 34, Galathealinum arcticum; 35, Lamellisabella denticulata; 36, Oligobrachia gracilis; 37, Polybrachia canadensis; 38, Siboglinum ekmani; 39, S. lacteum; 40, Siphonobrachia lauensis; 41, Unibrachium colombianum; 42, Zenkevitchiana longissima; 43. Siboglinidae, Sclerolinum (light blue outline triangle): S. contortum; Siboglinidae, vestimentiferans (light purple filled inverted triangles): 44, Alaysia spiralis; 45, Arcovestia ivanovi; 46, Escarpia southwardae; 47, Lamellibrachia anaximandri; 48, Paraescarpia echinospica; 49, Ridgeia piscesae; 50, Riftia pachyptila; 51, Tevnia jerichonana; 52, Seepiophila jonesi; Siboglinidae, vestimentiferan roots (dark purple outline inverted triangles): 53, E. southwardae root; 54, L. anaximandri root; 55, S. jonesi root; 56, P. echinospica root; Alvinellidae (maroon outline diamond): 57, Alvinella sp.; Ampharetidae (fuchsia outline rhombus): 58, Glyphanostomum sp.; Serpulidae (lime filled squares): 59, Serpulidae sp. JCR; 60, Serpula vermicularis; 61, Vermiliopsis infundibulum; Sabellidae (yellow outline squares): 62, Sabella pavonina; 63, Megalomma vesiculosum; Oweniidae (dark green outline dot): 64. Owenia fusiformis.

Figure 23. Strict consensus cladograms constructed using a total of 64 modern and fossil annelid taxa and 48 mostly morphological tube characters. Analyses were performed using implied character weighting, with the concavity constant set as default (k = 3; A), and also set to downweight homoplastic characters less (k = 4; B). Numbers on nodes represent groups present/contradicted support values. Modern taxa are coloured according to taxonomic groups; fossil taxa are in grey. A, consensus of 271 most parsimonious trees (best score = 15.387, consistency index = 0.195, retention index = 0.264); B, consensus of 60 most parsimonious trees (best score = 13.568, consistency index = 0.232, retention index = 0.569). Symbols/colours indicate taxonomic affinities.