What are Conodonts?

Conodonts are a group of extinct vertebrates that resemble eels. They floated the oceans of the world between the late Cambrian and late triasical periods (about 500 to 200 million years ago). Only about a dozen fossils of body fossils were revealed - they are mostly known for fossils of their unusual feed apparatus called Conodont Elements. Paleontologists hesitated to call these elements "teeth" because their comprehensive arrangement in the mouth of Conodonts was, unlike the well -known tooth arrangement.

Conodont elements are phosphatic microfosily found in large numbers in the respective layers, but always isolated. Conodont elements are so common that they can be easily insulated from paleozoic rocks by acetic acid. For many decades Conodonts have been known only from their teeth. Only at the beginning of the 80s. Despite the discovery of Conodont elements clearly preserved on the site with Conodont Animals, Astál Paleontolgists who claim Conodonts are teeth of Annelid Worms, TEorie, which was popular before the discovery of fossil.

Conodonts was simple animals, but very successful. Conodonts in the range of a centimeter to 40 cm (16 inches) lacked no fins except a small tail. This is unlike eels that often have long fins along the entire length of their bodies. For a while, even after some Conodont fossils were uncovered, some of them thought they were worms, although the subsequent findings confirmed the existence of a primitive notecord, flexible and primitive spine. Conodonts are therefore usually classified to phylum Chordata (chords that include all vertebrates and some close relatives). Conodonts are sometimes considered to be one of the first examples of skeletonization in chords.

Although their teeth look wild, Conodonts probably ate the eyelashes. Their fossils contain large side circular organs that are interpreted mostly paleontoloGical communities like eyes, although this interpretation is problematic for several reasons, not least of them that Conodonts apparently had very small heads, not sufficiently large on the location of neurological machines that would be necessary to use incoming visual information.

Because of their abundance, Conodonts are essential in stratigraphy, assessing the age of the rock based on its content. Because they change the color slightly as they age, Conodont elements can sometimes be used to assess the age of a particular layer at first sight. Conodont specialists are therefore very demanded from the oil industry looking for hydrocarbons from certain specific rock layers.