Preliminary Report on Conodonts of the Meramecian Stage (Upper Mississippian) from the Subsurface of Western Kansas

Conodonts are microscopic toothlike and platelike structures belonging to an extinct, unknown group of marine animals which probably were bilaterally symmetrical, soft bodied, and free swimming. These fossil structures range from a fraction of a millimeter to about three millimeters in length. They are composed chiefly of calcium phosphate, are either amber or grayish black in color, and are translucent to opaque. Conodonts, known to range from the Lower Ordovician into the Upper Triassic, have a world-wide distribution and have been found to be a useful tool to the stratigraphic paleontologist, despite the fact that there has been little unanimity on the zoological affinity of the animal that bore the conodonts, or on the function that was performed by these structures (Hass, 1962). Conodonts are good index fossils because they are durable, abundant, distinctive, and widespread in their geographic distribution yet restricted in their stratigraphic ranges. Because they are minute, conodonts are well suited for subsurface investigation. They provide a relatively dependable means of correlating different lithologies of biostratigraphic equivalents

Preliminary Report on Conodonts of the Meramecian Stage (Upper Mississippian) from the Subsurface of Western Kansas

Conodonts are microscopic toothlike and platelike structures belonging to an extinct, unknown group of marine animals which probably were bilaterally symmetrical, soft bodied, and free swimming. These fossil structures range from a fraction of a millimeter to about three millimeters in length. They are composed chiefly of calcium phosphate, are either amber or grayish black in color, and are translucent to opaque. Conodonts, known to range from the Lower Ordovician into the Upper Triassic, have a world-wide distribution and have been found to be a useful tool to the stratigraphic paleontologist, despite the fact that there has been little unanimity on the zoological affinity of the animal that bore the conodonts, or on the function that was performed by these structures (Hass, 1962). Conodonts are good index fossils because they are durable, abundant, distinctive, and widespread in their geographic distribution yet restricted in their stratigraphic ranges. Because they are minute, conodonts are well suited for subsurface investigation. They provide a relatively dependable means of correlating different lithologies of biostratigraphic equivalents