Panderodus

Panderodus was first described in 1959 on the basis of its tooth structures known as conodont elements. At the time of its discovery this specimen was the one of only two known conodont body fossils, the other one being a body fossil possibly belonging to Clydagnathus which was found in 1983 from Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. More body fossils have since been found, like a large fossil of the species Promissum pulchrum found in the upper Ordovician soom shale in South Africa in the 1990s, but only 11 total are so far known. The Waukesha fossil was known to have belonged to Panderodus, but wasn't fully analyzed until 2021. ==Classification==

Panderodus is a conodont of the family Panderodontidae, with Its closest relative being Besselodus. This conodont was relatively primitive; unlike later conodonts whose teeth formed into a complex sieve, the teeth of Panderodus were large and shark-like. The teeth probably had their own roles, like locking prey into place. Conodonts themselves are an unusual grouping, as for more than a hundred years we only knew of them by their teeth structures. Conodonts are classed in the grouping Agnatha alongside jawless fish like lampreys and hagfish. Conodonts such as Panderodus were typically small to medium-sized, elongate, marine vertebrates that look similar to eels today. These creatures have been classified under a large amount of animals, however now they are recognized as agnathan vertebrates. The phylogenetic position of Panderodus relative to other conodonts with complete apparatus reconstructions: ==Venom==

Another study found that some species of Panderodus exhibited body parts that would mean they would be venomous. This makes these conodonts some of the earliest known venomous organisms in the fossil record. ==References==