1. A member of an extinct group of small primitive fishlike chordates, preserved primarily in the form of their conelike teeth.
2. A fossil tooth of this chordate. Conodonts are the most widespread Paleozoic microfossils and are important for biostratigraphic indexing.

[Greek kōnos, cone + -ODONT.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.