Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 106, 29–53, 2015 Evolutionary roots of the conodonts with increased number of elements in the apparatus Jerzy Dzik Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warszawa, Poland. Wydział Biologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Aleja Z˙ wirki i Wigury 101, Warszawa 02-096, Poland. Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT: Four kinds of robust elements have been recognised in Amorphognathus quinquira- diatus Moskalenko, 1977 (in Kanygin et al. 1977) from the early Late Ordovician of Siberia, indicat- ing that at least 17 elements were present in the apparatus, one of them similar to the P1 element of the Early Silurian Distomodus. The new generic name Moskalenkodus is proposed for these conodonts with a pterospathodontid-like S series element morphology. This implies that the related Distomodus, Pterospathodus and Gamachignathus lineages had a long cryptic evolutionary history, probably ranging back to the early Ordovician, when they split from the lineage of Icriodella, having a duplicated M location in common. The balognathid Promissum, with a 19-element apparatus, may have shared ancestry with Icriodella in Ordovician high latitudes, with Sagittodontina, Lenodus, Trapezognathus and Phragmodus as possible connecting links. The pattern of the unbalanced contri- bution of Baltoniodus element types to samples suggests that duplication of M and P2 series elements may have been an early event in the evolution of balognathids. The proposed scenario implies a profound transformation of the mouth region in the evolution of conodonts. The probable original state was a chaetognath-like arrangement of coniform elements; all paired and of relatively uniform morphology.