And conodonts were all of those things -- abundant, widespread, and composed of lots of distinctive species.

牙形刺就是所有这些——数量丰富、分布广泛，并且由许多独特的物种组成。

So conodont elements quickly became one of the handiest tools in the geologist toolkit.

因此，牙形刺元素迅速成为地质学家工具包中最方便的工具之一。

In fact, many subdivisions of the Paleozoic are actually defined by when certain conodont species first or last appear.

事实上，古生代的许多细分实际上是根据某些牙形石物种首次或最后出现的时间来定义的。

But conodont elements can do more than just that!

但牙形刺元素可以做的不止于此！

It was only marginally more fish-like than its earlier relatives, hagfish and conodonts, with which it shared a common ancestor.

它只比它的早期亲戚盲鳗和牙形刺更像鱼，它们与它们有一个共同的祖先。

Likewise, in the Triassic Period, nearly every age is defined by the first appearance of various conodonts.

同样，在三叠纪时期，几乎每个时代都由各种牙形刺的首次出现来定义。

It turns out that conodont elements actually change color when they're heated up.

事实证明，牙形刺元素在受热时实际上会改变颜色。

But meanwhile, paleontologists still had no idea what kind of animals conodonts were.

但与此同时，古生物学家仍然不知道牙形刺是一种什么样的动物。

So it turned out that they weren't conodont animals; they were fossils of creatures that ate conodont animals!

所以事实证明它们不是牙形石动物；它们是吃牙形动物的生物的化石！

But while paleontologists were spending a hundred years or so debating what conodonts were, geologists were discovering what conodonts could do.

但是， 当古生物学家花了大约一百年的时间争论什么是牙形刺时，地质学家正在发现牙形刺的作用。