And conodonts were all of those things -- abundant, widespread, and composed of lots of distinctive species.

牙形刺就是所有这些——数量丰富、分布广泛，并且由独特物种组成。

So conodont elements quickly became one of the handiest tools in the geologist toolkit.

因此，牙形刺元素迅速成为地质学家工具包中最方便工具之一。

In fact, many subdivisions of the Paleozoic are actually defined by when certain conodont species first or last appear.

事实上，古生代细分实际上是根据某些牙形石物种首次或最后出现时间来定义。

But conodont elements can do more than just that!

但牙形刺元素可以做止于此！

It was only marginally more fish-like than its earlier relatives, hagfish and conodonts, with which it shared a common ancestor.

它只比它早期亲戚盲鳗和牙形刺更像鱼，它们与它们有一个共祖先。

Likewise, in the Triassic Period, nearly every age is defined by the first appearance of various conodonts.

，在三叠纪时期，几乎每个时代都由各种牙形刺首次出现来定义。

It turns out that conodont elements actually change color when they're heated up.

事实证明，牙形刺元素在受热时实际上会改变颜色。

But meanwhile, paleontologists still had no idea what kind of animals conodonts were.

但与此时，古生物学家仍然知道牙形刺是一种什么动物。

So it turned out that they weren't conodont animals; they were fossils of creatures that ate conodont animals!

所以事实证明它们是牙形石动物；它们是吃牙形动物生物化石！

But while paleontologists were spending a hundred years or so debating what conodonts were, geologists were discovering what conodonts could do.

但是， 当古生物学家花了大约一百年时间争论什么是牙形刺时，地质学家正在发现牙形刺作用。

But further study revealed that the conodont elements found in those fossils were actually in the animals' guts.

但进一步研究表明，在这些化石中发现牙形刺元素实际上存在于动物内脏中。

In the 1970s, fossils of some vaguely fish-like creatures were found in Montana that were thought to be conodont animals.

在 20 世纪 70 年代，在蒙大拿州发现了一些被认为是牙形动物隐约鱼类生物化石。

Please allow me to introduce you to the conodonts.

请允我向您介绍牙形刺。

Thanks to these beautiful specimens, we were able to learn that conodont animals were a kind of fish after all!

亏了这些美丽标本，我们才知道牙形动物毕竟是一种鱼！

So they were given the name conodont, which means " cone tooth." These elements are all verrry tiny.

因此，它们被命名为牙形石，意思是“圆锥齿”。这些元素都非常小。

Like modern lampreys and hagfish, conodonts were jawless fish, and they were one of the earliest and most successful groups of vertebrates.

像现代七鳃鳗和盲鳗一， 牙形刺是无颌鱼，它们是最早和最成功脊椎动物群之一。

Their final extinction brought an end to 300 million years of conodonts' role as a cornerstone of the world's ocean communities.

它们最终灭绝结束了 3 亿年来牙形刺作为世界海洋群落基石作用。

One hundred million years later, the warm, shallow seas were packed with tiny plants and animals — essentially, hors d'oeuvres for a plethora of bigger creatures like trilobites, conodonts, brachiopods, and corals.

一千万年之后，温暖浅海充满了微小植物和动物——基本上是大量大型生物开胃菜，如三叶虫，牙形虫，腕足类和珊瑚。

And the fossils also revealed that the tiny, tooth-like conodont elements were concentrated in the animal's mouth -- but also in its throat!

化石还显示，细小、类似牙齿牙形刺元素集中在动物嘴里——但也在它喉咙里！

Throughout their history, conodonts were affected by several mass extinctions, including the Great Dying at the end of the Permian Period 252 million years ago.

纵观它们历史， 牙形动物受到了几次大规模灭绝影响，包括 2.52 亿年前二叠纪末期大灭绝。