First record of a pectinariid-like (Polychaeta, Annelida) agglutinated worm tube from the Late Cretaceous of Colombia

Abstract

The earliest agglutinated pectinariid-like tube with a modern appearance is described from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian, ∼84 My) of Colombia. The rare agglutinated fossil tube is composed of sorted skeletal material, quartz sand, and unidentified carbonaceous fragments. It's solitary and non–encrusting life mode, the straight conical shape, and the agglutinated tube wall composed of sand-sized grains, supports affinity with the tube-building Family Pectinariidae. This finding suggests that Pectinariidae might have first appeared in the Neotropics at least by the late Mesozoic.