In John McPhee's wonderful book "Annals of the Former World"
he meets petroleum geologist Anita Harris, who pioneered
the study of conodonts, very small shells which proved to be reliable indicators of petroleum deposits.
I also found this:
http://www.le.ac.uk/geology/map2/pander/index.html, which is mostly of interest because the head of the group is the Chief Panderer...
Wow!!! Those are such cool, very tiny fossils!!! Thanks, et'!
What does the 'cono' mean here, wwh?
Dear WW: I have no idea. The important thing that Anita Harris noted was that during the process of changing marine deposits containing methane into petroleum, the conodonts
had a characteristic color change. So where you found changed conodonts, you might find petroleum. But again,
there had to be a layer above that would keep both methane and petroleum from escaping. That I learned from McPhee's book. You might think geology a dry subject, but McPhee
makes it fascinating reading. (Annals of the Former World)
From the Greek ko:nos 'cone' both as in 'pine-cone' and 'other cone-shaped object'. They are indeed incredible, tiny things.
Thank you, jheem! Makes perfectly good sense--and they are well-named.