Conodonts are strange and extinct animals that left behind lots of fossils: their teeth. Practically nothing else but teeny-tiny, jagged, pointy teeth. I remember when the animals themselves were total mysteries, and no one even knew what phylum they belonged to — it was only in the 1980s that a few eel-like soft tissue fossils were found, and they were recognized as chordates (very small chordates, on the order of millimeters to centimeters long) with big eyes and membranous fins.
And now today I find two artistic reconstructions of the conodont animal that please me.
Aren’t they pretty? If you’ve seen any of these animals (not likely, since they’ve been extinct since the Triassic or thereabouts) let me know. I have aquaria. I would like to raise a few thousand.
I’d also like to figure out what they’re doing with those nasty teeth.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/29sCzhD
Conodonts are strange and extinct animals that left behind lots of fossils: their teeth. Practically nothing else but teeny-tiny, jagged, pointy teeth. I remember when the animals themselves were total mysteries, and no one even knew what phylum they belonged to — it was only in the 1980s that a few eel-like soft tissue fossils were found, and they were recognized as chordates (very small chordates, on the order of millimeters to centimeters long) with big eyes and membranous fins.
And now today I find two artistic reconstructions of the conodont animal that please me.
Aren’t they pretty? If you’ve seen any of these animals (not likely, since they’ve been extinct since the Triassic or thereabouts) let me know. I have aquaria. I would like to raise a few thousand.
I’d also like to figure out what they’re doing with those nasty teeth.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/29sCzhD
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