We report the occurrence of in-situ sediment disturbance caused by a specimen of Rhabdammina
observed in life position on the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo ash layer in the abyssal South China Sea. The
specimen extracts sediment grains from the ash layer to build its agglutinated test, causing a
depression, or “moat” to form around the base of the specimen. We suspect that such fine-scale
disturbance caused by large, erect tubular foraminifera is a common feature of the fossil record in
deep-sea settings
