Conodonts Temporal range:
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Conodont elements | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
Class: | †Conodonta Pander, 1856 |
Subgroups | |
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Synonyms | |
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Conodonts (Greek kōnos, "cone", + odont, "tooth") are an extinct group of eel-looking agnathan (jawless) vertebrates, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from fossils of their spiky oral elements, which are usually found in isolation and are now called conodont elements, while knowledge about soft tissues remains limited. A resilient group of prehistoric fish, conodonts existed in the world's oceans for over 300 million years, from the Cambrian to the beginning of the Jurassic. Due to their cosmopolitan distribution, conodont elements are widely used as index fossils, fossils used to define and identify geological periods.
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