graptolite

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graptolite, any member of an extinct group of small, aquatic colonial animals that first became
apparent during the Cambrian Period (542 million to 488 million years ago) and that persisted
into the Early Carboniferous Period (359 million to 318 million years ago). Graptolites were
floating animals that have been most frequently preserved as carbonaceous impressions on
black shales, but their fossils have been found in a relatively uncompressed state in limestones.
They possessed a chitinous (fingernail-like) outer covering and lacked mineralized hard parts.
When found as impressions, the specimens are flattened, and much detail is lost.

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The graptolite animal was bilaterally symmetrical and tentacled. It has been suggested that
graptolites are related to the hemichordates, a primitive group of invertebrates. Graptolites have
proved to be very useful for the stratigraphic correlation of widely separated rock units and for the
finer division of Lower Paleozoic rock units (Cambrian to Devonian); examples include the
genera Climacograptus,Clonograptus, Didymograptus, Diplograptus, Monograptus, Phyllograptu

s, and Tetragraptus. Graptolites show a gradual development through time, and evolutionary
relationships between different graptolite groups have been discovered and analyzed.

Graptolites as index fossils

Graptolites are common fossils and have a worldwide distribution. The
preservation, quantity and gradual change over a geologic time scale of
graptolites allows the fossils to be used to date strata of rocks throughout the
world.They are important index fossils for dating Palaeozoic rocks as they
evolved rapidly with time and formed many different species. British geologists
can divide the rocks of the Ordovician and Silurian periods into graptolite
biozones; these are generally less than one million years in duration. A
worldwide ice age at the end of the Ordovician eliminated most graptolites
except the neograptines. Diversification from the neograptines that survived the
Ordovician glaciation began around 2 million years later.
Graptolites are also used to estimate water depth and temperature during the
graptolites lifetimes.
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