Editing Microfossil (section)

==Scolecodonts==
[[File:Scolecodonts from the Ordovician and Silurian.jpg|thumb|{{center|Scolecodonts<br />from the Ordovician and Silurian{{hsp}}<ref name=Hints2016 />}}]]

[[Scolecodont]]s (''worm jaws'' in Latin) are tiny jaws of [[polychaete]] [[annelid]]s of the order [[Eunicida]] - a diverse and abundant group of worms which has been inhabiting different marine environments in the past 500 million years. Composed of highly resistant organic substance, the scolecodonts are frequently found as fossils from the rocks as old as the late [[Cambrian]]. Since the worms themselves were soft-bodied and hence extremely rarely preserved in the fossil record, their jaws constitute the main evidence of polychaetes in the geological past, and the only way to restore the evolution of this important group of animals. Small size of scolecodonts, usually less than 1&nbsp;mm, puts them into a microfossil category. They are common by-product of conodont, [[chitinozoan]] and [[acritarch]] samples, but sometimes they occur in the sediments where other fossils are very rare or absent.<ref name=Hints2016>Hints, Olle (2016) [http://scolecodonts.net/ Scolecodonts — jaws of polychaete annelids] Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology. [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License].</ref>

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