Adolf Seilacher who discovered the original fossils of Paleodictyon nodosum hypothesizes that the creature is a worm-like species that burrows into the sediment around hydrothermal vents and deflects water flow through the burrows to catch food or farm its own food.
The name Pyropelta is from the Greek; it means "fire limpet" because these small deepwater limpets live near hot hydrothermal vents and similar habitat.
Jack Corliss, scientist and discoverer of undersea hydrothermal vents