Francevillian biota

While they have yet to be assigned to a formal taxonomic position, they have been informally and collectively referred to as the "Gabonionta", including by the Natural History Museum Vienna in 2014.

The structures were found to have an unusual concentration of zinc compared to the surrounding sediments, an element performing key functions in eukaryote biochemistry.

The geochemistry of the site indicates that the structures formed in sediment under an oxygenated water column of a prograding delta, and if they were biological might have engaged in aerobic respiration.

In a concurrent news report in Nature, paleontologist Philip Donoghue of Bristol University advocates a more conservative approach pending further evidence before calling them eukaryotes.

[4] Miao et al. 2019 stated that due to the "simple morphology and lack of diagnostic features, their eukaryotic affiliation still remains uncertain".

[11] Ernest Chi Fru and colleagues (including El Albani) argued in 2024 that there is evidence of nutrients conducive to animal life in the deposits.