Conodont

Conodont fossils

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The Conodonts ("cone-teeth") are a group of extinct chordates (possibly fish) which existed from the Late Cambrian to the start of the Jurassic from 540 to 195 million years ago. For over 150 years until 1993 and 1994 bafflingly, only the calcium phosphate teeth were known, then fossils in the Ordovician strata of South Africa, and Scotland showed what the owners of these teeth looked like.[1] There are only three genera of conodonts with body fossils, those being Promissum, Panderodus and Clydagnathus.

The conodont animal resembled a superficially segmented, worm-like animal with large, fish-like eyes, and a notochord. Some biologists suggested they were akin to hagfish but with huge eyes. We can speculate that perhaps the chordate eye was incompletely evolved and was less efficient than later vertebrate eyes. Therefore, it's possible conodonts needed huge eyes to see well.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Conodonts, University College London. Retrieved October 27, 2021.

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