Conodont

Conodonts Temporal range: Middle Cambrian to Earliest Jurassic (Hettangian) PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Conodont elements
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	†Conodonta Pander, 1856
Subgroups
Cavidonti Belodellida? Proconodontida Conodonti Protopanderodontida (paraphyletic) Panderodontida Prioniodontida Prioniodinida Ozarkodinida
Synonyms
†Conodontophorida Eichenberg, 1930[1] †Euconodonta

Conodonts (Greek kōnos, "cone", + odont, "tooth") are an extinct group of jawless vertebrates, classified in 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 (over 500 million years ago) to the beginning of the Jurassic (around 200 million years ago). Conodont elements are highly distinctive to particular species and are widely used in biostratigraphy as indicative of particular periods of geological time.