Organomineralization of cirratulid annelid tubes-fossil and recent examples

Raman spectroscopic study of the mineral composition of cirratulid tubes (Annelida, Polychaeta)

“…Recent calcareous cirratulids are known from temperate to tropical seas, having been reported from Vancouver Island, Canada, to the Gulf of California along the western coast of North America (Berkeley and Berkeley, 1954), and also from Chile, New Caledonia, Palau, the Ryukyu Islands, Vietnam, northern Australia and South Africa (Reish, 1952). They are able to form aggregations and small reefs in shallow waters of normal salinity, from the mid-intertidal zone to at least 20 m depth (Hartman, 1959;ten Hove and van den Hurk, 1993;Fischer et al, 2000). The oldest fossil cirratulid reefs are known from the Oligocene (Fischer et al, 1989(Fischer et al, , 2000, and cirratulids have been locally important as sources carbonate sediments since this time.…”

“…They are able to form aggregations and small reefs in shallow waters of normal salinity, from the mid-intertidal zone to at least 20 m depth (Hartman, 1959;ten Hove and van den Hurk, 1993;Fischer et al, 2000). The oldest fossil cirratulid reefs are known from the Oligocene (Fischer et al, 1989(Fischer et al, , 2000, and cirratulids have been locally important as sources carbonate sediments since this time.…”

Inconsistencies in proposed annelid affinities of early biomineralized organism Cloudina (Ediacaran): structural and ontogenetic evidences

“…The earliest hitherto known calcareous annelid tubeworms are serpulids (Serpulidae) and their definitive representatives are known from the Triassic (VINN et al, 2008c(VINN et al, , 2008aVINN & MUTVEI, 2009). The calcareous tubes also occur in sabellid (Sabellidae) and cirratulid (Cirratulidae) polychaetes, since the Early Jurassic (JÄGER, 2004;VINN et al, 2008a) and the Oligocene respectively (FISCHER et al, 2000;. Recent discoveries on the skeletal structures and biomineralization of calcareous polychaetes (WEEDON, 1994;VINN, 2005VINN, , 2007VINN et al, 2008cVINN et al, , 2008aVINN et al, , 2008bVINN et al, , 2008dVINN et al, , 2009SANFILIPPO, 2009;VINN & MUTVEI, 2009;TANUR et al, 2010) allows us for the first time to make a complete comparison with the skeletal structures and skeletogenesis of problematic tubicolous fossils such as Cloudina.…”

Defining organominerals: Comment on ‘Defining biominerals and organominerals: Direct and indirect indicators of life’ by Perry et al. (2007, Sedimentary Geology, 201, 157–179)

“…Thereafter, examples of organominerals and organomineralization processes have been documented, and the former papers cited, in mainstream scientific literature, beginning with our own work on carbonate organomineral formation in modern and recent microbialites and ooids (Défarge et al, 1996;Reitner et al, 1997;Arp et al, 1999;Trichet et al, 2001;Arp et al, 2003;Gautret et al, 2004;Gautret and Trichet, 2005), ancient microbialite analogues (Camoin et al, 1999;Tribovillard et al, 1999Tribovillard et al, , 2000, mud mounds (Neuweiler et al, 1999), encrusting sponge cements (Russo et al, 2006), housing tubes of worms (Fischer et al, 2000), coral EPS (Reitner, 2005), decaying sponge tissues (Delecat et al, 2001), and during laboratory experiments with microbialite-, ooid-and meteorite-extracted organic matter (Reitner, 2004). Organominerals and organomineralization processes have also been brought up in a discussion, involving one of us, about the origin of lower Paleozoic carbonate mud (Pratt, 2001;Arp et al, 2002).…”