An apparatus reconstruction of the conodont Caenodontus serrulatus Behnken 1975

The conodont species Caenodontus serrulatus Behnken is a rare coniform element first described in 1975 from Guadalupian strata exposed in the Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains of West Texas. Because it is rare, coniform, and occurs long after most coniform elements supposedly disappeared, it has been hauntingly mysterious. Based on new material containing a varied assemblage of coniform elements recovered from an outcrop of the Hegler Limestone (Guadalupian) in the Patterson Hills, West Texas, it is proposed that Caenodontus is comprised of a 6-7 membrate coniform apparatus and that this apparatus is very similar to the one proposed for the genus Ansella from the Ordovician.