|
''Paleodictyon nodosum'' is a creature thought to produce a certain form of ''Paleodictyon'' burrow found around mid-ocean ridge systems in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Although scientists have collected many of the burrows of ''Paleodictyon nodosum'', they have never seen a live one. What a live specimen would look like is widely debated, with the debate being split into two main sides. Adolf Seilacher who discovered the original fossils of ''Paleodictyon nodosum'' hypothesizes that the creature is a worm-like species that burrows into the sediment around hydrothermal vents and deflects water flow through the burrows to catch food or farm its own food. Peter A. Rona, discoverer of the modern burrows, suggests that ''Paleodictyon nodosum'' may actually be a large protist.〔 There are other known examples of protists reaching the sizes that ''Paleodictyon'' reaches, and they are known to be infaunal. Scientists ran various tests on the burrows of ''Paleodictyon'' and were unable to reach a single conclusion as to the form of ''Paleodictyon''. The one thing that they can agree upon is that there are many markers that suggest that these forms are caused by a creature, and not by geological forces.〔 ==Distribution/discovery== They were originally photographed in 1976 on the Galapagos Rift between 2400-3700m depth.〔Volcanoes of the Deep Sea. Dir. Stephenn Low. National Science Foundation, 2003. Netflix. Web. 30 June 2011.〕 Later, Seilacher and Rona used the deep-water submersible ''DSV Alvin'' to recover samples of the same form near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These samples were collected between 3430m and 3575m depth, around 26°N and 45°W.〔 These burrows were found in very similar conditions as the ones found along the Galapagos Rift. The biggest similarity between the habitats of all ''Paleodictyon nodosum'' is that they are all found along convergent plate boundaries at both active and extinct hydrothermal vents.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Paleodictyon nodosum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|