The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont Animal

Prelude: The Impossible Animal

1 As students, we drew and labeled a jargon-rich palaeontological world, only too ready to be captivated by the objects before us. Our tutor, however, seemed to have other ideas. He evidently hadnopassionforhissubject.Tohim,ammonitesandtrilobiteswerejust things to carry names. As each fossil was introduced in sequence, then drawn, annotated, named, and removed, our enthusiasm waned. How couldpaleontologybesodull?Whywouldanytutorwishittobeso?Our disapproval turned to disdain. Then, one day, we were greeted by rows of binocular microscopes. Through them, we looked at “microfossils” and, among these, some peculiar tooth-like objects. Immediately, and to our great surprise, everything now changed. Our roles were reversed. We initially thought these new objects dull (they were not the prettiest examples of their kind), but our tutor had woken up! He asked us what theywere.Wemadeafewfeebleguesses,whichheeasilyrebuffed.Hedid, however,takeoursuggestionsseriously.Thattoowasnew.Thenhebegan to list other possibilities, and one by one he explained that they too were incorrect. Before long, every blackboard in the room–and there were many–was covered with names and sketches of what seemed like the whole animal kingdom, and a few plants besides, and yet still we seemed no nearer the truth. We waited patiently for the answer, but that answer never came. Sporting a smile we had never previously seen, and with obvious relish, this dour Yorkshireman (or so we had thought) admitted he didn’t know what they were either. There was a moment of silence. Then webecamebrave:“Whatabout...?”“If...?”“Couldn’tthey...?”Butour speculation was futile. In every case someone had been there before us. The Impossible Animal Prelude 2 Prelude: The Impossible Animal We looked again at these tiny teeth. They were so evocative. How could no one have any sense of what they were? How could we not even know whether the animal that possessed them also possessed a backbone? How could a natural object exist in this advanced age and yet remain beyond the most general categorization? Undoubtedly enhanced by a perfect prelude–that dull journey through paleontological gems–our tutor’s performance had been quite brilliant. For years after, we would recall this impossible thing and dream a little about that magnificentmomentwhenallwouldberevealed .Manyyearslater,overacup of coffee with curator Peter Crowther, who was also one of the editors of the journal Palaeontology, I recalled the wonder of this little fossil. His face lit up. It was clear that he, too, had experienced a similar moment. It was as though we had shared a religious rite of passage. Then he said, “And have you heard? They have recently found the animal!” 4 The natives, in order to get rid of their troublesome guests, continually described Dorado as easy to be reached, and situate at no considerable distance. It was like a phantom that seemed to flee before the Spaniards, and to call on them unceasingly. It is in the nature of man, wandering on the earth, to figure to himself happiness beyond the region which he knows. El Dorado, similar to Atlas and the islands of the Hesperides, disappeared by degrees from the domain of geography, and entered that of mythological fictions. Alexander von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799 to 1804 (1853) ...