Conodonta

Conodonts are an extinct group of marine jawless vertebrates belonging to the class Conodonta. They are primarily known from their hard, mineralised tooth-like structures called "conodont elements" that in life were present in the oral cavity and used to process food. Rare soft tissue remains suggest that they had elongate eel-like bodies with large eyes. Conodonts were a long-lasting group with over 300 million years of existence from the Cambrian to the beginning of the Jurassic. Conodont elements are highly distinctive to particular species and are widely used in biostratigraphy as indicative of particular periods of geological time.

Conodonta

Rexroad, Carl Buckner, 1925- · No restrictions · via Wikipedia/Commons. 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
Also called
conodontPBDB
Sits inside
ConodontophoridaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 326 million years on record.

The record covers at least 525.5 Mya to 199.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 184.2 Mya.

Cambrian — about 273 of 12000 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 2525 of 12000 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1612 of 12000 occurrencesDevonian — about 5051 of 12000 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 888 of 12000 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 161 of 12000 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 322 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 489 of 12000 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 675 of 12000 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 12000 occurrences546–534 Mya — about 1 occurrence534–521 Mya — about 7 occurrences521–509 Mya — about 15 occurrences509–497 Mya — about 70 occurrences497–484 Mya — about 269 occurrences484–472 Mya — about 567 occurrences472–460 Mya — about 628 occurrences460–448 Mya — about 946 occurrences448–435 Mya — about 1206 occurrences435–423 Mya — about 535 occurrences423–411 Mya — about 1516 occurrences411–398 Mya — about 228 occurrences398–386 Mya — about 1064 occurrences386–374 Mya — about 1271 occurrences374–362 Mya — about 1060 occurrences362–349 Mya — about 439 occurrences349–337 Mya — about 154 occurrences337–325 Mya — about 80 occurrences325–312 Mya — about 114 occurrences312–300 Mya — about 173 occurrences300–288 Mya — about 16 occurrences288–275 Mya — about 4 occurrences275–263 Mya — about 22 occurrences263–251 Mya — about 319 occurrences251–239 Mya — about 555 occurrences239–226 Mya — about 242 occurrences226–214 Mya — about 146 occurrences214–202 Mya — about 334 occurrences202–189 Mya — about 18 occurrences189–177 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences525.5 Mya199.5 Mya546 Mya177 Mya

12,000+ occurrences of Conodonta on record. 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

12,000 occurrences read

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. The read hit its cap, so every figure above is a floor and the shares are of the occurrences read. More on what this infers.

Found in

at least 544 formations

Comabella — 42.33°N, 1.67°EComabella — 42.34°N, 1.07°EWuzhishan — 24.45°N, 108.30°ERauchkofel — 46.60°N, 12.87°EGun River — 49.60°N, 63.42°WGun River — 49.58°N, 63.77°WGun River — 49.57°N, 63.50°WGun River — 49.52°N, 63.52°WBecscie — 49.78°N, 64.32°WBecscie — 49.72°N, 64.05°WBecscie — 49.65°N, 63.38°WBecscie — 49.68°N, 63.65°WBecscie — 49.40°N, 62.33°WHohe Warte — 46.60°N, 12.87°ELaoyefen — 24.45°N, 108.30°EDenay Limestone — 39.22°N, 116.22°WDawan — 33.00°N, 111.00°EDawan — 32.00°N, 119.00°EBuchenstein — 46.88°N, 17.60°EBuchenstein — 47.00°N, 17.95°EBuchenstein — 46.95°N, 17.70°ETelatyn — 50.95°N, 22.68°ETelatyn — 50.62°N, 23.48°ETelatyn — 51.41°N, 23.29°ETelatyn — 51.76°N, 20.49°EBlack Rock Limestone — 51.57°N, 4.33°WBuchenstein — 45.82°N, 10.47°EEllis Bay — 49.50°N, 63.00°WLilley — 38.94°N, 83.46°WLilley — 39.07°N, 83.39°WLilley — 39.19°N, 83.62°WLilley — 38.95°N, 83.42°WSlatnik — 46.26°N, 13.96°EWhite Head — 48.53°N, 64.22°WWhite Head — 46.88°N, 60.35°WWhite Head — 48.67°N, 65.83°WWhite Head — 48.58°N, 68.18°WXiangtian — 24.45°N, 108.30°EBad Cache Rapids — 68.00°N, 85.00°WA — 33.86°N, 6.29°WKrtiny Limestone — 49.23°N, 16.76°EVolkhov Stage — 59.87°N, 31.43°ELochkov — 49.50°N, 14.33°ELochkov — 49.93°N, 14.18°ELochkov — 49.93°N, 14.13°EWangyou — 24.45°N, 108.30°EWangyou — 25.82°N, 106.47°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Conodonta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. The read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 520 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,840 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

903 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 469 sites for Conodonta, and this reads 240 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

at least 450 references

Each of the 12,000 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. That read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 438 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Conodonta

Credit
Rexroad, Carl Buckner, 1925-
Licence
No restrictions
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

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 itConodontophorida through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pander 1856)