Editing Conodont (section)

== The conodont animal ==
<gallery>
File:Promissum NT small.jpg|Life restoration of ''[[Promissum pulchrum]]''
File:Panderodus.png|Restoration of ''[[Panderodus|Panderodus unicostatus]]''
File:A body fossil of a Panderodus unicostatus (Branson & Mehl, 1933) from the Waukesha Lagerstätte of Wisconsin, USA.png|A body fossil of ''Panderodus unicostatus''
File:Conodont species size comparison.png|A size comparison of the three conodont species with preserved body fossils.
File:Typhloesus fossils 2022.jpg|Fossils of ''[[Typhloesus]]'', at one time considered the first conodont body fossil.   
</gallery>Although conodont elements are abundant in the fossil record, fossils preserving soft tissues of conodont animals are known from only a few deposits in the world. One of the first possible body fossils of a conodont were those of ''[[Typhloesus]]'', an enigmatic animal known from the [[Bear Gulch Limestone|Bear Gulch limestone]] in [[Montana]].<ref name="Conway Morris-1990">{{Cite journal |last=Conway Morris |first=Simon |date=1990-04-12 |title=''Typhloesus wellsi'' (Melton and Scott, 1973), a bizarre metazoan from the Carboniferous of Montana, U. S. A |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.1990.0102 |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences |volume=327 |issue=1242 |pages=595–624 |bibcode=1990RSPTB.327..595M |doi=10.1098/rstb.1990.0102|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This possible identification was based on the presence of conodont elements with the fossils of ''Typhloesus''. This claim was disproved, however, as the conodont elements were actually in the creature's [[Digestion|digestive]] area.<ref name="Conway Morris-2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Conway Morris |first1=Simon |last2=Caron |first2=Jean-Bernard |year=2022 |title=A possible home for a bizarre Carboniferous animal: Is Typhloesus a pelagic gastropod? |journal=Biology Letters |volume=18 |issue=9 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2022.0179 |pmid=36126687 |pmc=9489302 |doi-access=free}}</ref> That animal is now regarded as a possible [[Mollusca|mollusk]] related to [[Gastropoda|gastropods]].<ref name="Conway Morris-2022" /> As of 2023, there are only three described species of conodonts that have preserved trunk fossils: [[Clydagnathus|''Clydagnathus windsorensis'']] from the [[Carboniferous]] aged [[Granton Shrimp Bed]] in [[Scotland]], [[Promissum|''Promissum pulchrum'']] from the [[Ordovician]] aged [[Soom Shale]] in [[South Africa]], and [[Panderodus|''Panderodus unicostatus'']] from the [[Silurian]] aged [[Waukesha Biota]] in [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="Donoghue-2000" /><ref name="Murdock-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Murdock |first1=Duncan J. E. |last2=Smith |first2=M. Paul |date=2021 |editor-last=Sansom |editor-first=Robert |title=Panderodus from the Waukesha Lagerstätte of Wisconsin, USA: a primitive macrophagous vertebrate predator |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1389 |journal=Papers in Palaeontology |language=en |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=1977–1993 |doi=10.1002/spp2.1389 |bibcode=2021PPal....7.1977M |s2cid=237769553 |issn=2056-2799|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Gabbott-1995">{{cite journal |last=Gabbott |first=S.E. |author2=R. J. Aldridge |author3=J. N. Theron |year=1995 |title=A giant conodont with preserved muscle tissue from the Upper Ordovician of South Africa |journal=Nature |volume=374 |issue=6525 |pages=800–803 |bibcode=1995Natur.374..800G |doi=10.1038/374800a0 |s2cid=4342260}}</ref> There are other examples of conodont animals that only preserve the head region, including eyes, of the animals known from the Silurian aged [[Eramosa]] site in [[Ontario]] and [[Triassic]] aged [[Akkamori section]] in [[Japan]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=von Bitter |first1=Peter H. |last2=Purnell |first2=Mark A. |last3=Tetreault |first3=Denis K. |last4=Stott |first4=Christopher A. |date=2007 |title=Eramosa Lagerstätte—Exceptionally preserved soft-bodied biotas with shallow-marine shelly and bioturbating organisms (Silurian, Ontario, Canada) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/g23894a.1 |journal=Geology |volume=35 |issue=10 |pages=879 |doi=10.1130/g23894a.1 |bibcode=2007Geo....35..879V |issn=0091-7613|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Takahashi |first1=Satoshi |last2=Yamakita |first2=Satoshi |last3=Suzuki |first3=Noritoshi |date=2019-06-15 |title=Natural assemblages of the conodont Clarkina in lowermost Triassic deep-sea black claystone from northeastern Japan, with probable soft-tissue impressions |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018218310277 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=524 |pages=212–229 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.03.034 |bibcode=2019PPP...524..212T |s2cid=134664744 |issn=0031-0182|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

According to these fossils, conodonts had large eyes, fins with fin rays, [[Myomere|chevron-shaped muscles]] and axial line, which were interpreted as [[notochord]] or the [[dorsal nerve cord]].<ref name="Murdock-2021" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I1V_BAAAQBAJ |title=Cambrian Ocean World: Ancient Sea Life of North America |date=2014-06-06 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-01188-6 |pages=300–301 |language=en}}</ref> While ''Clydagnathus'' and ''Panderodus'' had lengths only reaching {{cvt|4-5|cm}}, ''[[Promissum]]'' is estimated to reach {{cvt|40|cm}} in length, if it had the same proportions as ''Clydagnathus''.<ref name="Murdock-2021" /><ref name="Gabbott-1995" />