Conodont

Conodonts; Temporal range: Upper Cambrian to Upper Triassic; 495–199.6 million years ago
	Reconstruction of a conodont
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Conodonta
Synonyms
	Conodontophorida;

Conodonts are an extinct class of the phylum Chordata. They are now regarded as vertebrates, though the issue is still a live one.

Conodont elements from the Mississippian period, Pennsylvania.

Elements of Manticolepis subrecta, a conodont from the Devonian of Poland.

For many years conodonts were known only from their feeding apparatus, which fossilises well. This is because most of the conodont animal was soft-bodied, so everything but the teeth were not fossilised in normal circumstances.

It was not until early 1980s that the conodont teeth were found with trace fossils of the host organism.^[1] It came from the Lower Carboniferous lagerstätte near Edinburgh, Scotland.

Conodont elements

The 'teeth', called conodont elements, are very common in the fossil record, and have been used in biostratigraphy.

They are also used as palaeothermometers. This is because under higher temperatures the phosphate undergoes colour changes, which are measured with the conodont alteration index. This has made them useful for petroleum exploration in rocks dating from the Cambrian to the Upper Triassic.

Description of the animal

Eleven fossil imprints of conodont animals are known. They depict an eel-like creature with 15 or, more rarely, 19 elements forming a bilaterally symmetrical array in the head. This array was a feeding apparatus different from the jaws of modern animals.

There are three forms of teeth, coniform cones, ramiform bars, and pectiniform platforms, which may have performed different roles.

The organisms range from a centimeter or so to the giant Promissum, 40 cm in length.^[2] It is now widely agreed that conodonts had large eyes, fins with fin rays, chevron-shaped muscles and a notochord.

The entire class of Conodonts, or at least what was left of them at the time, were wiped out by the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, which occurred roughly 200 million years ago.^[3]

Conodont Media

Preserved articulated association of conodont elements belonging to the species Archeognathus primus (Ordovician, North America)
Complete element set of the conodont Hindeodus parvus
Life restoration of Promissum pulchrum
Restoration of Panderodus unicostatus
A body fossil of Panderodus unicostatus
A size comparison of the three conodont species with preserved body fossils.
Fossils of Typhloesus, at one time considered the first conodont body fossil.

References

↑ Briggs D.E.G; Clarkson E.N.K. & Aldridge R.J. 1983 (1983). "The conodont animal". Lethaia. 16: 1–14. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01139.x.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) [1]
↑ Gabbott S.E; Aldridge R.J. & Theron J.N. 1995 (1995). "A giant conodont with preserved muscle tissue from the Upper Ordovician of South Africa". Nature. 374 (6525): 800–803. doi:10.1038/374800a0. S2CID 4342260.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ The extinction of conodonts – in terms of discrete elements – at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary

[Briggs-Lethaia-1] Briggs D.E.G; Clarkson E.N.K. & Aldridge R.J. 1983 (1983). "The conodont animal". Lethaia. 16: 1–14. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01139.x.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) [1]

[Gabbott1995-2] Gabbott S.E; Aldridge R.J. & Theron J.N. 1995 (1995). "A giant conodont with preserved muscle tissue from the Upper Ordovician of South Africa". Nature. 374 (6525): 800–803. doi:10.1038/374800a0. S2CID 4342260.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[3] The extinction of conodonts – in terms of discrete elements – at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary

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