Conodont palaeobiology: recent progress and unsolved problems |
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| Authors: | S Conway Morris |
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| Institution: | Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK |
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| Abstract: | The fossilized soft-parts of conodonts are extraordinarily rare; excluding dubious and refuted examples, only 10 specimens are known. Nine come from the Lower Carboniferous of Granton, Scotland, and represent at least two genera with complex polygnathacean apparatuses. The soft-parts include well-defined myotomal segmentation and a probable notochord, thus strongly suggesting affinity with the chordates. The tenth specimen, from the Lower Silurian of Waukesha, Wisconsin, bears a simpler apparatus of panderodontid conodont elements. The soft-parts are very poorly preserved, but appear to be unlike those of the Granton specimens. In both occurrences the conodont apparatus appears well adapted for grasping and biting, supporting earlier suggestions that conodont elements acted as teeth. Many conodonts were probably predators or scavengers, but other feeding modes are not necessarily excluded. Other aspects of conodont palaeobiology reviewed here include mode of life and possible migration, reproduction and genetics, and palaeopathology. All these topics rely almost exclusively on the study of conodont elements, and many problems of conodont palaeobiology await further research. |
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