ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Conodont biostratigraphy

Okay kiddo, so you know how we can learn about things that happened a long, long time ago by studying old things that are left behind, like fossils?

Well, conodont biostratigraphy is a way of using fossils from a group of tiny creatures called conodonts to figure out how old rocks are and what kind of environment they formed in.

You see, conodonts were really small animals that lived in the ocean a loooong time ago, from about 500 million years ago to around 200 million years ago. They had these little tooth-like structures in their mouths that are called elements.

Scientists can collect samples of rock from different places around the world and look at the conodonts that are preserved in them. By studying the shapes, sizes, and patterns of the different conodont elements in the rocks, they can figure out which species of conodonts were living in the ocean at different times.

Since different species of conodonts lived during different time periods, scientists can use them to create a timeline of when particular rock layers were formed. This is called biostratigraphy.

By comparing the ages of different rock layers from around the world based on the conodonts they contain, scientists can also figure out things like how the Earth's climate and environment changed over time.

So, to sum it up: conodont biostratigraphy is a way scientists use tiny fossils from an ancient group of animals called conodonts to figure out how old rocks are and what the environment was like a long, long time ago.