Apparatus architecture of Pseudofurnishius murcianus (Gondolellidae, Conodonta) and its implications for the evolution of the conodont skeleton

Abstract

Conodonts are known primarily from their microscopic tooth‐like skeletal feeding elements that occur commonly in jumbled assemblages in marine rocks from the late Cambrian to the Triassic–Jurassic boundary interval. Interpreting their evolution requires a scheme of positional homology of these elements within the feeding apparatus, information that is provided only by exceedingly rare articulated natural assemblages of elements. Here we describe fused clusters and bedding plane assemblages of the middle Triassic conodont Pseudofurnishius murcianus which are composed of 15 elements, consistent with the established model for Gondolelloidea, and more generally for Ozarkodinina, including symmetrical pairs of P 1 , P 2 , M, and S 1–4 elements and an asymmetrical unpaired S 0 element. We use these data to reconstruct the three‐dimensional architecture of the P. murcianus feeding apparatus which is closely comparable to that of Nicoraella , the only other gondolellid for which apparatus architecture is known, demonstrating evolutionary conservation within Gondolelloidea superfamily. Our results highlight evolutionary constraints on conodont dental architecture and offer new insights into the functional and developmental aspects of these early vertebrates.