Conodont
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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, which are usually found in isolation and are 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.
Complete element set of the conodont Hindeodus parvus
Life restoration of Promissum pulchrum
Fossils of Typhloesus, at one time considered the first conodont body fossil.
Carboniferous
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The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 Ma to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 Ma. In North America, the Carboniferous is often treated as two separate geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian.
Cliff section through the Serpukhovian Red Wharf Limestone Formation, Wales. A marine limestone at the base of the cliff is overlain by an orange-coloured fluvial sandstone. Subaerial exposure of the limestone during a period of falling sea level resulted in the formation of a karstic surface, which has then been infilled by the river sands. A thin, estuarine silty mudstone overlays the sandstone, which in turn is overlain by a second marine limestone.
Hyden Formation over Pikeville Formation in the Pennsylvanian of Kentucky, US. The exposure has Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic sedimentary rocks of the Breathitt Group. The upper part of the roadcut is Hyden Formation, consisting of mixed siliciclastics and coal. The lower part is Pikeville Formation, also having mixed siliciclastics and coal.
A reconstruction of life on a forest floor during the Pennsylvanian Period. The reptile is Edaphosaurus, a pelycosaur. Plants are the seed ferns Neuropteris and Pectopteris, the club mosses Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, other plants include Cordaites, Calamites, climbing ferns, pond algae, and Sphenophyllum.
Etching depicting some of the most significant plants of the Carboniferous