“…Although C 30 ‐npc found in Devonian and younger samples has been attributed to the emergence of marine pelagophyte algae since mid‐Paleozoic (Moldowan, Seifert, Arnold, & Clardy, 1984), its occurrence in Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic strata has been ascribed to other sources, possibly including foraminifera and sponges (Gold et al, 2016; Grabenstatter et al., 2013). More recently, another rare C 30 steroid 26‐methylstigmastane, and its co‐occurrence with C 30 ‐ipc and C 30 ‐npc in suites of Neoproterozoic samples attribute all three C 30 steranes to demosponges (Zumberge et al., 2018), however, is a topic of continuing debate (Hallmann et al., 2019; Love et al., 2019; Nettersheim et al., 2019). Consistent with a source from demosponges, 26‐methylstigmastane was consistently present, albeit in trace amounts, in all samples analyzed (Figure S2).…”