Proconodontida

Not to be confused with Protoconodontida, Paraconodontida, or Protopanderodontida.

Proconodontida
Temporal range: Furongian – Ordovician Possible descendant taxon Belodellida survives to the Devonian or Permian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: †Conodonta
Subclass: †Cavidonti
Order: †Proconodontida
Sweet, 1988
Synonyms
  • Cordylodontacea Lindström, 1970
  • Proconodontacea Miller, 1981
  • Fryxellodontoacea Miller, 1981

Proconodontida is an order of conodonts which originated in the late Cambrian (Furongian) and persisted partly through the Ordovician.[1] The ancestral proconodont, Proconodontus, was one of the earliest euconodonts ("true conodonts") to appear. Proconodonts are often equated with the broader group Cavidonti, which occupies one side of a basal division in the evolution of early euconodonts in the Cambrian. All other euconodonts occupy Conodonti, the other side of the Cambrian split.[1]

Proconodontida may be ancestral to another order, Belodellida.[1] Belodellids originate in the Ordovician and survive up to the Devonian[1] or even the Permian (if Caenodontus qualifies as a member of the order).[2]

  1. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Nestell, Merlynd K.; Wardlaw, Bruce R. (2015). "An apparatus reconstruction of the conodont Caenodontus serrulatus Behnken 1975". Micropaleontology. 61 (4–5): 293–300. doi:10.47894/mpal.61.4.03. ISSN 0026-2803.