A scolecodont is the jaw of a polychaete annelid, a common type of fossil-producing segmented worm useful in invertebrate paleontology. Scolecodonts are common and diverse microfossils, which range from the Cambrian period (around half a billion years ago at the start of the Paleozoic era) to the present.

Composed of highly resistant organic substance, the scolecodonts are frequently found as fossils from the rocks as old as the late Cambrian. Since the worms themselves were soft-bodied and hence extreamly rarely preserved in the fossil record, their jaws constitute the main evidence of polychaetes in the geological past, and the only way to ...

2025年1月17日 · Two complete scolecodonts so far. Any ID of the genera or species is welcome. Hoping for conodonts soon. More scolecodonts found tonight. I think my first conodont. Connecticut, United States. Lower Jurassic, Shuttle Meadow & East Berlin FMs. These are very cool looking fossils, and great photographs.

New genera and new species of scolecodonts (fossil annelids) with paleoenvironmental and evolutionary considerations. Micropaleontology, 44 (4), 435-440.

2014年5月4日 · Scolecodonts are the jaws of extinct polychaete annelid worms. They are known from the Cambrian right through the Recent, so we’re pretty sure what their functions were: grabbing prey and pulling it into the gullet of the worm.

2007年3月7日 · Scolecodonts are common microfossils in Palaeozoic rocks, bearing witness to the extensive radiation of jawed polychaete worms during the Ordovician Period. Information on Ordovician scolecodonts is increasing, though it is still patchy and strongly skewed towards Baltica and Laurentia.

This is one of the earliest records of scolecodonts in the world and extends the range of this fossil group for more than 15 m.y. in Baltica. Based on fused and reconstructed jaw apparatuses, the new genus Kadriorgaspis and two new species, Kadriorgaspis kaisae and “ Xanioprion ” viivei , are introduced and the diagnosis of the family ...

2016年5月20日 · Scolecodonts are the mouth pieces of jaw-bearing polychaete annelid worms that occur in abundance as microfossils in the fossil record. Historical scolecodont collections (e.g., Hinde, 1879, 1880, 1882; Stauffer, 1933, 1939; Eller, 1934, 1936, 1940, 1942) are of crucial importance for the taxonomy of fossil polychaetes because they often ...

Chitinous, marine, annelid worm jaws, 50μm to a few millimeters in size, when found as fossils are collectively referred to as “scolecodonts.” They constitute the armour of the pharynx that can protrude (eversion) for food capture or retract for digestion of food.

When found, scolecodonts generally represent the isolated jaw apparatus of a more complex unit. Fossil scolecodonts, like Recent forms, are considered to occupy a marine environment. Early Paleozoic forms are com-monly found in association with conodonts, chitinozoans, and acid-insoluble palynomorphs. When scolecodonts are subjected to the same