Proconodontida
| Proconodontida Temporal range: Possible descendant taxon Belodellida survives to the Devonian or Permian | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Infraphylum: | Agnatha |
| Class: | †Conodonta |
| Subclass: | †Cavidonti |
| Order: | †Proconodontida Sweet, 1988 |
| Synonyms | |
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Proconodontida is an order of conodonts which originated in the late Cambrian (Furongian) and persisted partly through the Ordovician. The ancestral proconodont, Proconodontus, was one of the earliest euconodonts ("true conodonts") to appear. Proconodonts are often equated with the broader group Cavidonti, which occupies one side of a basal division in the evolution of early euconodonts in the Cambrian. All other euconodonts occupy Conodonti, the other side of the Cambrian split.
Proconodontida may be ancestral to another order, Belodellida. Belodellids originate in the Ordovician and survive up to the Devonian or even the Permian (if Caenodontus qualifies as a member of the order).