The modern burrows were found around mid-ocean ridge systems in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The one thing that they can agree upon is that there are many markers that suggest that these forms are caused by a creature, and not by geological forces.

[2] Later, Seilacher and Rona used the deep-water submersible DSV Alvin to recover samples of the same form near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The biggest similarity between the habitats of all Paleodictyon nodosum is that they are all found along divergent plate boundaries at both active and extinct hydrothermal vents.

Each horizontal section consists of three equidistant rows of tiny holes (approximately 1 mm in diameter) that connect at 120° angles.

[3] This suggests that the idea of an animal cultivating its own food is not unreasonable, and the fact that the deep-ocean seafloor environment is so low in nutrition it seems like a logical evolutionary step to have been taken.

The second hypothesis, supported by Rona, is that a sponge or megalith foraminifera such as a xenophyophore left the structures as a cast of its body.

[9] Another reason that this hypothesis seems likely is that best estimates of the size of the worm suggest that it would have to travel unreasonably long distances (compared to its body length) to fully navigate its burrows (103~104[clarification needed]).

The fossil record indicates that these burrow-types could be one of the earliest examples of complex structures being built by animals.

[2] The IMAX film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea[2] describes the search for Paleodictyon nodosum, using the deep-water submersible DSV Alvin near volcanic vents that lie 3,500 meters (12,000 feet) underwater in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.