Around these vent sites live communities of highly specialised animals. Ancient analogues of these vent sites in the fossil record are often exploited for the sulphide minerals. Several ancient VMS deposits contain fossils, mostly tube fragments of uncertain affinity. The deposit is a lens of sulphide minerals - here reconstructed to its original Silurian form. The fossils discovered so far have all been replaced by various sulphide minerals.
Large tubes are common fossils in the deposit.
These may be fossils of polychaete worms, perhaps analogous to the alvinellids found at modern hydrothermal vent sites. Both of these are new and await further description. Interestingly, neither brachiopods nor monoplacophorans have been found in modern vent communities. Research on the Russian massive sulphide deposits and associated fossils is funded by a Museum interdisciplinary research fund project, led by Richard Herrington, Crispin Little and Noel Morris. The work continues jointly with Russian colleagues from Miass, Russia - lead by Victor Zaykov and Valeriy Maslennikov.