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'''Conodonts''' are extinct [[chordata|chordates]] resembling eels, classified in the class '''Conodonta'''. For many years, they were known only from tooth-like microfossils now called '''conodont elements''', found in isolation. Knowledge about soft tissues remains relatively sparse. The animals are also called '''Conodontophora''' (conodont bearers) to avoid ambiguity.
'''Conodonts''' are extinct [[chordata|chordates]] resembling eels, classified in the class '''Conodonta'''. For many years, they were known only from tooth-like microfossils now called '''conodont elements''', found in isolation. Knowledge about soft tissues remains relatively sparse. The animals are also called '''Conodontophora''' (conodont bearers) to avoid ambiguity.

The conodont's teeth are the earliest teeth that we find in the fossil record. Evolutionary biologists believe that the conodont represents the beginning of the evolution of the hard, bony skeleton. The teeth were the first elements of the cartilaginous skeleton to harden into bone, and from there the bony skeleton radiated out to the rest of the body in an evolutionary which took place over millions of years. [[Neil Shubin]] writes: "For a long time conodonts were enigmas: scientists disagreed over whether they were animal, vegetable or mineral. Conodonts were claimed to be pieces of clams, sponges, vertebrates, even worms. The speculation ended when whole animals started to show up in the fossil record. For years, paleontologists have argued about why hard skeletons, those containing hydroxyapatite, arose in the first place. For those who believed that skeletons began with the backbones, or body armor, conodonts provide an 'inconvenient tooth' if you will. The first hydroxyapatite-containing body parts were teeth. Hard bones arose not to protect animals but to eat them."<ref name='Shubin "Conodont"'>{{cite book|last=Shubin|first=Neil|title=Your Inner Fish: A Journay into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body|date=2009 reprint edition|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York|isbn=9780307277459|page=85-86}}</ref>



== Description ==
== Description ==

Revision as of 01:04, 7 February 2014

Conodonts
Temporal range: 495–199.6 Ma Late Cambrian to Late Triassic
Reconstruction of a conodont
Two conodont "teeth" and a reconstruction of a conodont
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: †Conodonta
Eichenberg 1930
Groups
Synonyms
  • †Conodontophorida

Conodonts are extinct chordates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from tooth-like microfossils now called conodont elements, found in isolation. Knowledge about soft tissues remains relatively sparse. The animals are also called Conodontophora (conodont bearers) to avoid ambiguity.

The conodont's teeth are the earliest teeth that we find in the fossil record. Evolutionary biologists believe that the conodont represents the beginning of the evolution of the hard, bony skeleton. The teeth were the first elements of the cartilaginous skeleton to harden into bone, and from there the bony skeleton radiated out to the rest of the body in an evolutionary which took place over millions of years. Neil Shubin writes: "For a long time conodonts were enigmas: scientists disagreed over whether they were animal, vegetable or mineral. Conodonts were claimed to be pieces of clams, sponges, vertebrates, even worms. The speculation ended when whole animals started to show up in the fossil record. For years, paleontologists have argued about why hard skeletons, those containing hydroxyapatite, arose in the first place. For those who believed that skeletons began with the backbones, or body armor, conodonts provide an 'inconvenient tooth' if you will. The first hydroxyapatite-containing body parts were teeth. Hard bones arose not to protect animals but to eat them."[1]


Description

Conodont elements from the Deer Valley Member of the Mauch Chunk Formation

The 11 known fossil imprints of conodont animals depict an eel-like creature with 15, or more rarely, 19 elements forming a bilaterally symmetrical array in the head. This array constituted a feeding apparatus radically different from the jaws of modern animals. The three forms of teeth, coniform cones, ramiform bars, and pectiniform platforms, may have performed different functions.

The organisms range from a centimeter or so[verification needed] to the giant Promissum, 40 cm in length.[2] It is now widely agreed that conodonts had large eyes, fins with fin rays, chevron-shaped muscles and a notochord.

The entire class of conodonts is postulated to have been wiped out in the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, which occurred roughly 200 million years ago.[3]

Ecology

The "teeth" of some conodonts have been interpreted as filter-feeding apparatuses, filtering out plankton from the water and passing it down the throat.[citation needed] Others have been interpreted as a "grasping and crushing array".[2] The lateral position of the eyes makes a predatory role unlikely.[citation needed] The preserved musculature hints that some conodonts (Promissum at least) were efficient cruisers, but incapable of bursts of speed.[2]

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.[4]

Milsom and Rigby envision them as vertebrates similar in appearance to modern hagfish and lampreys,[5] and phylogenetic analysis suggests they are more derived than either of these groups.[6] This analysis, however, comes with one caveat: early forms of conodonts, the protoconodonts, appear to form a distinct clade from the later paraconodonts and euconodonts. The protoconodonts likely represent a stem group to the phylum containing chaetognath worms, indicating they are not close relatives of true conodonts.[7] Moreover, some analyses do not regard conodonts as either vertebrates or craniates, because they lack the main characteristics of these groups.[8]

 Craniata 

Elements

For many years, conodonts were known only from enigmatic tooth-like microfossils, which occur commonly, but not always in isolation, and were not associated with any other fossil. These phosphatic microfossils are now termed "conodont elements" to avoid confusion. They are widely used in biostratigraphy.

Conodont elements are also used as paleothermometers, a proxy for thermal alteration in the host rock, because under higher temperatures, the phosphate undergoes predictable and permanent color changes, measured with the conodont alteration index. This has made them useful for petroleum exploration where they are known, in rocks dating from the Cambrian to the Late Triassic.

Until early 1980s, conodont teeth had not been found in association with fossils of the host organism, in a konservat lagerstätte.[11] This is because most of the conodont animal was soft-bodied, thus everything but the teeth were not suited for preservation under normal circumstances.

The conodont apparatus may comprise a number of discrete elements, including the spathognathiform, ozarkodiniform, trichonodelliform, neoprioniodiform, and other forms.[12]

See also

  • Lau event - mass extinction event with major impact on conodonts

Notes

  1. ^ Here, the hagfish are treated as a separate clade, as in Sweet and Donoghue's 2001 tree produced without cladistic analysis.[9] However, it has been recognised by some [10] that the hagfish and lampreys may be closer to one another in their own clade, the Cyclostomata.
  2. ^ The clade Proconodontida is also known as Cavidonti.
  3. ^ Euconodonta is referred to as "Conodonti" by Sweet and Donoghue,[9] although this is not widely used[original research?].

References

  1. ^ Shubin, Neil (2009 reprint edition). Your Inner Fish: A Journay into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 85-86. ISBN 9780307277459. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Gabbott, S.E. (1995). "A giant conodont with preserved muscle tissue from the Upper Ordovician of South Africa". Nature. 374 (6525): 800–803. doi:10.1038/374800a0. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ The extinction of conodonts —in terms of discrete elements— at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary
  4. ^ Briggs, D. (May 1992). "Conodonts: a major extinct group added to the vertebrates". Science. 256 (5061): 1285–1286. doi:10.1126/science.1598571. PMID 1598571. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Milsom, Clare (2004). "Vertebrates". Fossils at a Glance. Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 0-632-06047-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Donoghue, P.C.J. (2000). "Conodont affinity and chordate phylogeny". Biological Reviews. 75 (2): 191–251. doi:10.1017/S0006323199005472. PMID 10881388. Retrieved 2008-04-07. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Szaniawski, H. (2002). "New evidence for the protoconodont origin of chaetognaths" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 47 (3): 405.
  8. ^ Turner, S., Burrow, C.J., Schultze, H.P., Blieck, A., Reif, W.E., Rexroad, C.B., Bultynck, P., Nowlan, G.S. (2010). "False teeth: conodont-vertebrate phylogenetic relationships revisited" (PDF). Geodiversitas. 32 (4): 545–594. doi:10.5252/g2010n4a1.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ a b Sweet, W. C. (2001). "Conodonts: past, present, future". Journal of Paleontology. 75 (6): 1174–1184. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2001)075<1174:CPPF>2.0.CO;2. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Bourlat, S. J (2006). "Deuterostome phylogeny reveals monophyletic chordates and the new phylum Xenoturbellida". Nature. 444 (7115): 85–88. doi:10.1038/nature05241. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 17051155. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi: 10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01993.x , please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi= 10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01993.x instead.
  12. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite jstor}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by jstor:1303249, please use {{cite journal}} with |jstor=1303249 instead.

Further reading

  • Aldridge, R. J.; Briggs, D. E. G.; Smith, M. P.; Clarkson, E. N. K.; Clark, N. D. L. (1993). "The anatomy of conodonts". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 340 (1294): 405–421. doi:10.1098/rstb.1993.0082.
  • Aldridge, R. J.; Purnell, M. A. (1996). "The conodont controversies". Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 11 (11): 463–468. doi:10.1016/0169-5347(96)10048-3. PMID 21237922.
  • Donoghue, P. C. J.; Forey, P. L.; Aldridge, R. J. (2000). "Conodont affinity and chordate phylogeny". Biological Reviews. 75 (2): 191–251. doi:10.1017/S0006323199005472. PMID 10881388.
  • Gould, Stephen Jay (1985). "Reducing Riddles". In The Flamingo's Smile, 245-260. New York, W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-30375-6.
  • Janvier, P (1997). "Euconodonta". The tree of life web project, http://tolweb.org. Retrieved 2007-09-05. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  • Knell, Simon J. The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont Animal (Indiana University Press; 2012) 440 pages
  • Sweet, Walter. The Conodonta.
  • Sweet, W. C.; Donoghue, P. C. J. (2001). "Conodonts: past, present and future". Journal of Paleontology. 75 (6): 1174–1184. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2001)075<1174:CPPF>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0022-3360.
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