Conodontophorida

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.

Conodontophorida

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
Sits inside
CyclostomataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

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 283 of 12000 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 2567 of 12000 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1615 of 12000 occurrencesDevonian — about 4903 of 12000 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 915 of 12000 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 161 of 12000 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 322 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 489 of 12000 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 741 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 281 occurrences484–472 Mya — about 576 occurrences472–460 Mya — about 634 occurrences460–448 Mya — about 967 occurrences448–435 Mya — about 1210 occurrences435–423 Mya — about 536 occurrences423–411 Mya — about 1534 occurrences411–398 Mya — about 228 occurrences398–386 Mya — about 1019 occurrences386–374 Mya — about 1153 occurrences374–362 Mya — about 1059 occurrences362–349 Mya — about 444 occurrences349–337 Mya — about 163 occurrences337–325 Mya — about 83 occurrences325–312 Mya — about 122 occurrences312–300 Mya — about 176 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 244 occurrences226–214 Mya — about 162 occurrences214–202 Mya — about 381 occurrences202–189 Mya — about 19 occurrences189–177 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences525.5 Mya199.5 Mya546 Mya177 Mya

12,000+ occurrences of Conodontophorida 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 551 formations

Wuzhishan — 24.45°N, 108.30°EComabella — 42.33°N, 1.67°EComabella — 42.34°N, 1.07°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°ESlatnik — 46.26°N, 13.96°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°WWhite 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°ETelatyn — 50.95°N, 22.68°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

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The named rock units Conodontophorida 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. 527 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,763 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

969 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 459 sites for Conodontophorida, 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 459 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. 447 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 content1

Picture of Conodontophorida

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

No 3D scan of Conodontophorida 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

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 itCyclostomata through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Eichenberg 1930)