NAME Laevitubulus tenuis
AGE Late Ordovician to Early Devonian.   AGE span: 460.9...397.5 mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Fungi Imperfecti, Mycelia sterilia.
FIGURE(S)
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FIGURE REFERENCE Burgess ND, Edwards D. 1991. Classification of uppermost Ordovician to Lower Devonian tubular and filamentous macerals from the Anglo-Welsh Basin; Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 106, p. 41-66.
SPECIES, AUTHORITY L. tenuis Burgess & Edwards 1991, p. 47, fig. 2.
LOCATION Anglo-Welsh Basin, Great Britain.
ORIG DESCRIPTION* Flattened tubes each of nearly consistent diameter, 15-70 µm in maximum diameter, unbranched and of indeterminate length. Wall 1-3 µm thick, opaque. The longest specimen is 600 µm long and incomplete. All have a relatively thin homogeneous wall of uniform thickness (fig. 4). No end wall, nor any other structure indicating a termination, has been seen. Specimens are always dark and opaque, even after prolonged oxidation in Schulze's solution. They are flattened and unbranched. Groups aligned in parallel or random orientation are sometimes found.
COMMENTS* Laevitubulus crassus is generally unflattened, has a thicker wall (3-10 µm), and may be helical. Laevitubulus plicatus has a thinner, translucent and often folded wall. Laevitubulus laxus is narrower, branched and more often found in nonspecific wefts. Edwards (1982) recovered wide, thin-walled opaque tubes that did not clear in Schulze's solution, from the Late Ludlow of South Wales. These are probably conspecific with the tubes described above. Probable further examples are known from the Late Wenlock of Ireland (Edwards et al., 1983), and the Late? Llandovery Massanutten Sandstone of Virginia, USA. (Pratt et al., 1978). The wide opaque tubes within the nematophytalean weft Nematothallus pseudovasculosa Lang 1937 are also similar, were "often found isolated in the matrix" (Lang, 1937), and also remained opaque on oxidation. However, whether all Laevitubulus tenuis specimens were derived from nematophytalean wefts cannot be ascertained with certainty.

Derivation: from Latin tenuis, thin, referring to thickness of tube wall.
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Burgess ND, Edwards D. 1991. Classification of uppermost Ordovician to Lower Devonian tubular and filamentous macerals from the Anglo-Welsh Basin; Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 106, p. 41-66.
K&J REMARKS
TYPE
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Laevitubulus tenuis
SERIAL NUMBER 886
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.