The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont AnimalA fascinating, comprehensive, accessible account of conodont fossils—one of paleontology’s greatest mysteries: “Deserves to be widely read and enjoyed” (Priscum). Stephen Jay Gould borrowed from Winston Churchill when he described the eel-like conodont animal as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The search for its identity confounded scientists for more than a century. Some thought it a slug, others a fish, a worm, a plant, even a primitive ancestor of ourselves. As the list of possibilities grew, an answer to the riddle never seemed any nearer. Would the animal that left behind the miniscule fossils known as conodonts ever be identified? Three times the creature was found, but each was quite different from the others. Were any of them really the one? Simon J. Knell takes the reader on a journey through 150 years of scientific thinking, imagining, and arguing. Slowly the animal begins to reveal traces of itself: its lifestyle, its remarkable evolution, its witnessing of great catastrophes, its movements over the surface of the planet, and finally its anatomy. Today the conodont animal remains perhaps the most disputed creature in the zoological world. |
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American animal's annelid apparatus argument became began believed biological black shales Branson and Mehl Briggs Cambrian Carboniferous chaetognath chordate Clarkson conodont animal conodont assemblages conodont elements conodont fossils conodont studies conodont workers convinced Conway Morris Croneis dentine Derek Briggs Devonian discovery Druce evidence evolution evolutionary extinction Fåhræus fauna felt fish Frank Rhodes genera Geol Geological Survey geologists global Gould hagfish Hass Icriodus ICZN idea imagined interpretation invertebrate jaws Jeppsson Klapper knew later Lethaia limestones Lindström looked lophophore material Mehl's Melton micropaleontology Mississippian Moore Museum natural nomenclature objects Ordovician Paleont paleontology Paleozoic Palmatolepis Pander Society paper parataxa perhaps Polygnathus possessed problem protoconodonts published Purnell R. J. Aldridge remained Rexroad Rhodes rocks Schmidt scientific scolecodont Scott seemed Silurian simply species specimens Stauffer stratigraphic structure suggested taxonomy teeth thinking thought tiny Treatise Triassic Ulrich and Bassler University utilitarian vertebrate Walliser worm Ziegler zoological