Toward that end he pursued studies of small (meiofaunal) grazing animals living within
microbial mats and documented the earliest appearance of animal and
trace (so - called Ediacaran)
fossils in late Precambrian sediments in NE Norway.
Unlike microcrystals, for example, the tubules have complex forms — often observed abruptly changing direction to avoid intersecting each other, in a manner consistent with tunneling
microbial behavior — and contain organic molecules associated with biological activity; the Ries tubules are also similar to
fossil traces of microbes found in volcanic glass.