A series of Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous samples of hydrocarbon seep bodies from central Spitsbergen (Svalbard) were treated with acetic acid to retrieve insoluble micro and macrofossils. The Lower Cretaceous samples yielded abundant lingulid material of Lingularia similis? Biernat & Emig 1993, represented by well preserved, but invariably fragmented shells. They provide the first critical ultrastructural information for this important extinct member of the extant Lingulidae.