Spathognathodontidae Temporal range: | |
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Family: | †Spathognathodontidae |
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Spathognathodontidae is an extinct conodont family ranging from the Silurian to the Devonian. [2]
Genera are:
The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.
Conodonts are an extinct group of agnathan (jawless) vertebrates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from their tooth-like oral elements found in isolation and now called conodont elements. Knowledge about soft tissues remains limited. They existed in the world's oceans for over 300 million years, from the Cambrian to the beginning of the Jurassic. Conodont elements are widely used as index fossils, fossils used to define and identify geological periods. The animals are also called Conodontophora to avoid ambiguity.
Thelodonti is a class of extinct jawless fishes with distinctive scales instead of large plates of armor.
Baragwanathia is a genus of extinct lycopsid plants of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age, fossils of which have been found in Australia, Canada, China and Czechia. The name derives from William Baragwanath who discovered the first specimens of the type species, Baragwanathia longifolia, at Thomson River.
In the geological timescale, the Llandovery Epoch occurred at the beginning of the Silurian Period. The Llandoverian Epoch follows the massive Ordovician-Silurian extinction events, which led to a large decrease in biodiversity and an opening up of ecosystems.
The Late Silurian to Early Devonian Keyser Formation is a mapped limestone bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Paleontology in Wisconsin refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The state has fossils from the Precambrian, much of the Paleozoic, and the later part of the Cenozoic. Most of the Paleozoic rocks are marine in origin. Because of the thick blanket of Pleistocene glacial sediment that covers the rock strata in most of the state, Wisconsin’s fossil record is relatively sparse. In spite of this, certain Wisconsin paleontological occurrences provide exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.
The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. It was during this time that the early chordates developed the skull and the vertebral column, leading to the first craniates and vertebrates. The first fish lineages belong to the Agnatha, or jawless fish. Early examples include Haikouichthys. During the late Cambrian, eel-like jawless fish called the conodonts, and small mostly armoured fish known as ostracoderms, first appeared. Most jawless fish are now extinct; but the extant lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. Lampreys belong to the Cyclostomata, which includes the extant hagfish, and this group may have split early on from other agnathans.
The Beaverfoot Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Ordovician to Early Silurian (Llandovery) age. It is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and Alberta, and the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia. It consists of carbonate rocks, and was named for the Beaverfoot Range at Pedley Pass southeast of Golden, British Columbia by L.D. Burling in 1922.
Wurmiella is an extinct conodont genus.
Ozarkodina is an extinct genus of conodonts in the family Spathognathodontidae.
George Jennings Hinde was a British geologist and paleontologist.
Polygnathus is an extinct genus of conodonts.
Spathognathodus is an extinct conodont genus in the family Spathognathodontidae. It is a non-Platform conodont, from the Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous).
Zieglerodina is an extinct conodont genus in the family Spathognathodontidae.
Lanea is an extinct conodont genus in the family Spathognathodontidae from the Early Devonian.
Pterospathodus is an extinct genus of conodont from the Silurian period.
Cryptotaxis is an extinct genus of conodonts in the family Cryptotaxidae from the Famennian.
Oulodus is a genus of conodonts in the family Prioniodinidae.
The Waukesha Biota refers to the biotic assemblage of the Konservat-Lagerstätte of Early Silurian age within the Brandon Bridge Formation in Waukesha County and Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It is known for the exceptional preservation of its diverse, soft-bodied and lightly skeletonized taxa, including many major taxa found nowhere else in strata of similar age. The sites discovery was announced in 1985, thus leading to a wide plethora of discoveries being made.