The affinities of conodonts—new evidence from the Carboniferous of Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| Authors: | RICHARD J ALDRIDGE DEREK E G BRIGGS EUAN N K CLARKSON M PAUL SMITH |
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| Institution: | R. J. Aldridge, Department of Geology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG72RD, England;D. E. G. Briggs, Department of Geology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, England;E. N. K. Clarkson, Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, Scotland;M. P. Smith, Department of Geology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, England |
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| Abstract: | Three new specimens which preserve the soft parts of conodonts are described from the Lower Carboniferous of Granton, Edinburgh. The animal was apparently laterally flattened in life and the somites were V-shaped. The nature of the preserved axial lines is equivocal; some may represent the walls of the gut. The elements of one of the new specimens show that it does not belong to Clydagnathus , to which the other soft-bodied specimen from Granton was tentatively assigned. The possibility of a relationship between the euconodonts and the Chaetognatha is discounted. Nor do the conodonts constitute a phylum, but are a separate group of primitive jawless craniates. |
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| Keywords: | Conodont soft-parts Chordata agnathan myxinoid Lower Carboniferous |
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