The shovel-tube fessurum has split from the tube fessurum and lives with them. Its long tubes have become shorter but now have a somewhat shovel shaped tubes. They are not very aggressive and usually follow the tube fessurum to help it find iron. They have the shovel shape because it helps them to dig down directly to the iron. As it digs it also feeds on microorganisms in the soil. It is often found following tube fessurum and is rarely seen alone. The shovel-tube fessurum is lazy and uses the tube fessurum to find iron and with their advantage of having shovel tubes rather than simply tubes they get to the iron first.
Living Relatives (click to show/hide)
These are randomly selected, and organized from lowest to highest shared taxon. (This may correspond to similarity more than actual relation)