Category: Conodonta

Belongs within: Craniata.Contains: Furnishidae, Westergaardodina, Proconodontida, Conodonti. Conodonts were a major group of basal vertebrates from the Late Cambrian to the Triassic, mostly known from small phosphatised elements that are now interpreted as their teeth or tooth-plates (the only mineralised part of the animals). The life arrangement of these elements is commonly known as the… Continue reading Conodonta

Belongs within: Conodonta. The Proconodontida are a lineage of conodonts characterised by thin-walled, smooth-surfaced, primarily coniform elements. These formed a relatively simple apparatus that typically lacked structures in the P positions (Sweet 1988). The earliest representative of the proconodontidans is the Late Cambrian Proconodontus, which possessed an apparently unimembrate apparatus of relatively large, deeply excavated,… Continue reading Proconodontida

Belongs within: Conodonta. Westergaardodina was a long-lived paraconodont genus found from the Middle or Late Cambrian to the Middle Ordovician. It had W- or U-shaped elements that Müller & Hinz-Schallreuter (1998) explained as growing through a combination of dorsal and/or lateral pressure being applied to points on a growing element. How the Westergaardodina elements were… Continue reading Westergaardodina

Belongs within: Conodonta.Contains: Prioniodontida, Clavohamulidae, Drepanoistodontidae, Acanthodontidae, Panderodontida, Scolopodus. The Conodonti are a major group of conodonts including those lineages derived from the Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician genus Teridontus, comprising the majority of familiar conodont species (Sweet & Donoghue 2001). Early Conodonti of the families Oneotodontidae and Protopanderodontidae typically had apparatuses composed of albid,… Continue reading Conodonti

Belongs within: Conodonti.Contains: Multioistodontidae, Prioniodontidae, Balognathidae, Cyrtoniodontidae, Prioniodinida, Ozarkodinida. The Prioniodontida are a group of conodonts characterised by the possession of apparatus including pastinate P elements, though they are believed to be paraphyletic with regard to the Ozarkodinida (with carminate P elements) and Prioniodinida (with digyrate P elements) (Sweet & Donoghue 2001). They first appear… Continue reading Prioniodontida

Belongs within: Balognathidae. Icriodus is a genus of conodonts known from the Devonian, characterised by the possession of a lanceolate, nodulose or ridged, P1 element. The remaining elements in the apparatus were mostly tiny and coniform (Sweet 1988). The genus may be polyphyletic, derived from multiple radiations of Latericriodus and/or Pelekysgnathus in shallow waters (Sweet… Continue reading Icriodus

Belongs within: Prioniodontida. The Cyrtoniodontidae is a group of conodonts known from the Ordovician (Hass 1962). The type species and form taxon Cyrtoniodus complicatus may represent the M element of Phragmodus cognitus (Sweet 1988). Characters (from Hass 1962, for S elements only): Main cusp terminal; aboral side of posterior bar partly or wholly expanded into… Continue reading Cyrtoniodontidae

Belongs within: Prioniodontida.Contains: Polyplacognathidae, Icriodus. The Balognathidae are an Ordovician lineage of conodonts that include the ancestors of later Silurian and Devonian Prioniodontida (Sweet 1988). <==Balognathidae [Balognathinae] | i. s.: Promissum Kovács-Endrödy 1986AS93 | `–P. pulchrumPD98 | Polonodus Dzik 1976AS93 | `–P. corbatoi (Serpagli 1974)AS93 |–+–PolyplacognathidaeS88 | `–+–Sagittodontina Knüpfer 1967 [incl. Noixodontus McCracken & Barnes… Continue reading Balognathidae