Publisher's Synopsis
This review of investigative techniques and applications in conodont studies, reflects the increased awareness of the importance of conodonts in micropalaeontology and of the hazards to human health associated with the extraction and concentration of conodonts.;The first section, on extraction and concentration, includes important material on non-toxic techniques, which are alternatives to the use of heavy narcotics. Scanning electron microscopy, which has revealed a new dimension in conodont study, is reviewed in the following two chapters, outlining a technique for the study of etched and polished surfaces of conodonts and reviewing the merits of back-scattered imaging. A further chapter covers the use of contact microradiography for the study of conodont assemblages.;Further sections cover micromorphics and the analysis of shape in conodonts, the organic metamorphism of conodonts and the electron-spin resonance technique in the testing of the completion of the last heating of conodont-bearing rocks. Geochemical studies of conodonts include an important chapter on a new method of stratigraphic correlation (chemostratigraphy) which has interesting potential in poorly fossiliferous strata. There is a section devoted to biostratigraphical studies, and a recommended selection of palaeoecological studies can be found at the end of the book.
