Left: Patterns of recurrent damage and surface wear in conodonts, all P1 elements of Idiognathodus. Above: The crests of the platform ridges in this element are blunted and flattened to form triangular wear facets with pitted microfeatures. Such features are not developed elsewhere on the element and are most unlikely to be post mortem artefacts. Royal Ontario Museum specimen ROM 50699 from Upper Carboniferous, Elk County, Kansas, USA. Modified from Purnell (Purnell, M. A.,1995, ‘Microwear on conodont elements and macrophagy in the first vertebrates’, Nature, 374, 798-800). Terms for orientation and conodont element notation follow Purnell et al. (Purnell, M. A., Donoghue, P. C. J. and Aldridge, R. J., 2000, ‘Orientation and anatomical notation in conodonts’, Journal of Paleontology, 74(1), in press.)