Acanthodontidae

Belongs within: Conodonti.

The Acanthodontidae are a group of conodonts known from the Ordovician, bearing an apparatus of nongeniculate coniform elements (Sweet 1988).

Characters (from Sweet 1988): Skeletal apparatus basically bimembrate, with nongeniculate, weakly albid or hyaline, coniform elements. One element compressed, bilaterally symmetrical, commonly with sharp anterior and posterior margins; other similar, cusp twisted laterally with respect to base which thus opens to one side.

<==Acanthodontidae
    |--Eucharodus Kennedy 1980AS93
    |    `--E. parallellusPBJ03
    |--Parapaltodus Stouge 1984S88
    |    |--P. flexuosus (Barnes & Poplawski 1973)AS93
    |    `--P. simplicissimusAB04
    |--Acanthodus Furnish 1938S88
    |    |--*A. uncinatus Furnish 1938DJ71
    |    |--A. costatus Druce & Jones 1971DJ71
    |    `--A. lineatus (Furnish 1938) [=Drepanodus lineatus]DJ71
    `--Drepanodus Pander 1856S88
         |--*D. arcuatus Pander 1856DJ71
         |--D. acutus Pander 1856DJ71
         |--D. sculponeaDJ71
         |--D. simplex Branson & Mehl 1933DJ71
         |--D. subarcuatus Furnish 1938 [incl. Oistodus larapintinensis Crespin 1943, D. parallelus]DJ71
         `--D. tenuis Moskalenko 1967DJ71

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[AB04] Albanesi, G. L., & S. M. Bergström. 2004. Conodonts: Lower to Middle Ordovician record. In: Webby, B. D., F. Paris, M. L. Droser & I. G. Percival (eds) The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event pp. 312–326. Columbia University Press.

[AS93] Aldridge, R. J., & M. P. Smith. 1993. Conodonta. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 563–572. Chapman & Hall: London.

[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.

[PBJ03] Pyle, L. J., C. R. Barnes & Z. Ji. 2003. Conodont fauna and biostratigraphy of the Outram, Skoki, and Owen Creek Formations (Lower to Middle Ordovician), Wilcox Pass, Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleontology 77 (5): 958–976.

[S88] Sweet, W. C. 1988. The Conodonta: Morphology, taxonomy, paleoecology, and evolutionary history of a long extinct animal phylum. Clarendon Press: Oxford.