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Analysis of natural assemblages reveals that the architecture of the ozarkodinid conodont feeding apparatus remained conservative throughout two hundred million years of evolution. The apparatus was differentiated into an anterior array which performed a rasping and/or slicing function and its supporting structures were probably homologous to the dental cartilages of the living agnathans. The taphonomy of the apparatus indicates that the majority of natural assemblages represent carcasses that came to rest at a high angle to the sea floor, suggesting the presence of soupy substrates. Analysis of conodont hard tissue histology has led to a new model of element growth. This is used to reinterpret the affinity of the hard tissues themselves as opposed to the competing methodology which interprets the hard tissues first. Conodont elements are composed from numerous odontodes, and individual elements can be …