Hindeodus

Hindeodus Temporal range: Early Carboniferous-Early Triassic 345.3–251.3 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Complete apparatus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	†Conodonta
Order:	†Ozarkodinida
Family:	†Anchignathodontidae
Genus:	†Hindeodus Rexroad & Furnish, 1964[1]
Species
†H. capitanensis[2] †H. changxingensis †H. cristilus †H. eurypyge †H. gulloides[3] †H.infaltus †H. julfenis †H. parvus †H. permicus[4] †H. praeparvus †H. priscus [5] †H. typicalis [6] †H. wordensis

Hindeodus is an extinct genus of conodonts in the family Anchignathodontidae. The generic name Hindeodus is a tribute to George Jennings Hinde, a British geologist and paleontologist from the 1800s and early 1900s. The suffix -odus typically describes the animal's teeth, essentially making Hindeodus mean Hinde-teeth.

Conodonts such as Hindeodus are typically small, elongate, marine animals that look similar to eels today. Hindeodus existed from the early Carboniferous through the early Triassic during which they inhabited a wide variety of different environments in the Paleozoic and Triassic seas.^[7] Their body consisted entirely of soft tissues, except for an assortment of phosphatic elements believed to be their feeding apparatus.^[8] Despite years of controversy regarding their phylogenetic position, conodonts such as Hindeodus are now considered to be vertebrates. They are slightly more derived than the early vertebrates called Cyclostomata, and are part of a large clade of "complex conodonts" called Prioniodontida in the order Ozarkodinina.^[7] Hindeodus fossils are distributed worldwide due to the diversity of environments they inhabited.^[9] Species of Hindeodus are differentiated by slight variation of the elements of their feeding apparatus. A species of Hindeodus called Hindeodus parvus is particularly well studied because it is used as an index fossil defining the Permian-Triassic boundary.^[10]