What are conodont fossils?
Conodonts are a group of extinct microfossils known from the Late Cambrian (approximately 500 million years ago) to the Late Triassic (about 200 million years ago). They are the only known hard parts of an extinct group of animals believed to be distantly related to the living hagfish.
How is conodont different than Cynodont?
As nouns the difference between conodont and cynodont is that conodont is any of several extinct fishlike chordates that had conelike teeth while cynodont is (zoology) any of several small carnivorous synapsids in the clade , ancestral to mammals and extinct close relatives.
How do we know that the conodont animal is a chordate?
Classification and phylogeny As of 2012, scientists classify the conodonts in the phylum Chordata on the basis of their fins with fin rays, chevron-shaped muscles and notochord.
What does the word conodont mean?
Definition of conodont : a Paleozoic toothlike fossil that is probably the remains of an extinct eellike marine animal that may be an invertebrate or primitive vertebrate also : the animal from which conodonts are derived.
Where are conodont fossils found?
Conodont teeth are very common fossils in the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian rocks in Kentucky. Conodont teeth fossils are microscopic and are studied by micropaleontologists, who use them to establish relative ages of the rocks in which they were found.
Where are conodont found?
Conodont elements are composed of calcium carbonate fluorapatite with additional organic matter. They are found in marine deposits, commonly in black shales associated with graptolites, radiolarians, fish remains, brachiopods, cephalopods, trilobites and palaeocopid ostracods.
Can conodont fossils be used to locate oil and gas deposits?
The petroleum industry uses conodonts as indicators of the degree of maturation of hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins as well as for biostratigraphy. Unburied and unheated conodonts have a light amber color because they retain complex organic molecules in the skeletal framework.
Why are conodont elements considered index fossils?
As conodont animals evolved through time, their elements changed shape. Because these changes were so distinctive, they make excellent index fossils, meaning they are useful for correlating the strata in which they are found.
What does a conodont look like?
Conodont shapes are commonly described as either simple cones (like sharp teeth), bar types (a thin bent shaft with needlelike cusps or fangs along one edge), blade types (flattened rows of cones of ranging size), or platform types (like blades, with broad flanges on each side making a small ledge or platform around …
How do you pronounce Conodont?
Starts here1:00How To Say Conodont – YouTubeYouTube