The Most Useful Fossils in the World

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For decades, one of the most abundant kinds of fossils on Earth, numbering in the millions of specimens, was a mystery to paleontologists. But geologists discovered that these mysterious fossils could basically be used to tell time in the deep past.

Thanks as always to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his wonderful paleoart : http://spinops.blogspot.com/

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References:
Agematsu S, Uesugi K, Hiroyoshi S, Sashida K. 2017. Reconstruction of the multielement apparatus of the earliest Triassic conodont, Hindeodus parvus, using synchotron radiation X-ray micro-tomography. Journal of Paleontology.
https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2017.61
Briggs DEG, Clarkson ENK, Aldridge, RL. 1983. The conodont animal. Lethaia 16: 1-14.
doi: 10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01993.x
Dzik J. 1991. Evolution of oral apparatuses in the conodont chordates. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 36(3): 265-323.
https://app.pan.pl/archive/published/app36/app36-265.pdf
Goudemand N, Orchard MJ, Urdy S, Bucher H, Tafforeau P. 2011. Synchotron-aided reconstruction of the conodont feeding apparatus and implications for the mouth of the first vertebrates. PNAS 108(21): 8720-8724.
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/21/8720
Purnell MA, Donoghue PC. 1997. Architecture and functional morphology of the skeletal apparatus of ozarkodinid conodonts. Philosophical Transations of the Royal Society B 352: 1545-1564.
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.1997.0141
Purnell MA, Donoghue PC. 1998. Skeletal architecture, homologies and taphonomy of ozarkodinid conodonts. Palaeontology 41(1): 57-102.
https://www.palass.org/sites/default/files/media/publications/palaeontology/volume_41/vol41_part1_pp57-102.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273457548_Conodonts_from_the_Carnian-Norian_Boundary_Upper_Triassic_of_Black_Bear_Ridge_northeastern_British_Columbia_Canada_New_Mexico_Museum_of_Natural_History_and_Science_Bulletin_64_1-139_2014
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/rhaetian