Belodontidae

Belodina confluens, copyright Peep Männik/TTÜ GI.

Belongs within: Conodonta.

The Belodontidae is a form-group of conodonts known from the Ordovician and Silurian periods (with potential representatives in the Devonian) in which the pulp cavity is surmounted by a single, straight or curved, denticulated fang-like cusp whose base may be greatly enlarged (Hass 1962).

<==Belodontidae [Belodidae] H62
    |--Belodus Pander 1856 H62
    |    `--*B. gracilis Pander 1856 H62
    |--Microcoelodus Branson & Mehl 1933 H62
    |    `--*M. typus Branson & Mehl 1933 H62
    |--Ptiloconus Sweet 1955 [=Pteroconus Branson & Mehl 1933 non Hinde in Fox 1900] H62
    |    `--*P. gracilis (Branson & Mehl 1933) [=*Pteroconus gracilis] H62
    |--Strachanognathus Rhodes 1953 H62, DJ71
    |    `--*S. parvus Rhodes 1955 H62
    |--Plegagnathus Ethington & Furnish 1959 M62
    |    `--*P. nelsoni Ethington & Furnish 1959 M62
    `--Belodina Ethington 1959 M62
         |--*B. grandis (Stauffer 1935) [=Belodus grandis] M62
         `--B. confluens SS05

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[DJ71] Druce, E. C., & P. J. Jones. 1971. Cambro-Ordovician conodonts from the Burke River Structural Belt, Queensland. Commonwealth of Australia, Bureau of National Development, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin 110: 1–159.

[H62] Hass, W. H. 1962. Conodonts. In: Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology pt W. Miscellanea: Conodonts, Conoidal Shells of Uncertain Affinities, Worms, Trace Fossils and Problematica pp. W3–W69. Geological Society of America, and University of Kansas Press.

[M62] Müller, K. J. 1962. Supplement to systematics of conodonts. In: Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology pt W. Miscellanea: Conodonts, Conoidal Shells of Uncertain Affinities, Worms, Trace Fossils and Problematica pp. W246–W249. Geological Society of America, and University of Kansas Press.

[SS05] Sansom, I. J., & M. P. Smith. 2005. Late Ordovician vertebrates from the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, USA. Palaeontology 48 (1): 31–48.