Complexodus
Complexodus is an extinct conodont genus in the family Pterospathodontidae.

via GBIF · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- BalognathidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Conodonta
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Conodonta
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Conodonta
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Conodonta
Time the record covers
At least 200 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 458 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 469.4 Mya to 452.8 Mya.
4 occurrences of Complexodus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Ordovician100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
4 formations
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The named rock units Complexodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Complexodus and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Complexodus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
47 taxa- Periodon aculeatus3 sites
- Protopanderodus3 sites
- Dapsilodus2 sites
- Drepanoistodus2 sites
- Spinodus2 sites
- Venoistodus balticus2 sites
- Acanthodistacodus1 site
- Acodus similaris1 site
- Atelelasma1 site
- Baltoniodus variabilis1 site
- Belodina monitorensis1 site
- Cahabagnathus sweeti1 site
- Calliops armatus1 site
- Coelocerodontus trigonius1 site
- Coelochilina1 site
- Conodonta1 site
- Costiconus ethingtoni1 site
- Curtognathus1 site
- Drepanodus1 site
- Drepanoistodus suberectus1 site
- Egorovella1 site
- Eoplacognathus1 site
- Erismodus1 site
- Erraticodon patu1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Complexodus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Conodont biostratigraphy of the Gongwusu Formation (Upper Ordovician) in the Wuhai area of Inner Mongolia, North China1
- Early Sandbian (Late Ordovician) conodonts from the Yenwashan Formation, western Zhejiang, South China1
- A proposed global boundary stratotype for the base of the Upper Series of the Ordovician System: The Fågelsång section, Scania, southern Sweden1
- Ordovician siberian Platform: Fauna and stratigraphy of the Lena Facial Zone; Novosibirski; Nauka Sib. Birch1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Complexodus
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- via GBIF
- Licence
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
No 3D scan of Complexodus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Complexodus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itBalognathidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dzik 1976