With this image we continue the coverage of the jawless fish as well as reach the last page in my old notebook, luckily I got a new one a few weeks ago. This time we continue with the coverage of the Conodonts, specifically the Protopanderodontida which are the most basal order of the subclass conodonti also called Euconodonts or True Conodonts which I introduced last time. Here we see representatives of the last and largest three families; the Protopanderodontidae, the Serratognathidae, and the Strachanognathidae.
Given we've discussed their taxonomy and relationship to other animals and there isn't much to say about these specific genera how about we discuss conodonts ecology. First in terms of diet there has been quite a bit of debate. One school of thought hypothesizes that they may have had soft tissue filaments to filter food out of the water column in a manner akin to baleen. The second and more substantiated school of thought is that they would have used the jaws for predating upon prey. There is one genus which may have had venom. Of course with as huge a group that Conodonts are it is likely that various genera had highly varied diets
Left to Right:
Top Row: Drepanodus, Eucharododus
Second Row: Polycostatus, Stultodontus
Third Row: Ventricodus, Serratognathoides
Fourth Row: Serratognathus, Dapsilodus
Fifth Row: Cornuodus, Decoriconus
Sixth Row: Pseudooneotodus, Scabbardella
Seventh Row: Scalpellodus, Scolopodus
Bottom Row: Strochanognathus, Beselodus
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