ECOS III The slender, spine-shaped, apatitic protoconodonts appear in the fossil record near the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary and persist through the Cambrian . Recent work (Szaniawski 1 982, J. Paleont. 56) suggests that protoconodont elements were homologous to the grasping spines of modern chaetognaths . Paraconodonts are similar to protoconodonts in their mode of growth by basal accretion ...

This chapter describes an expert system for the identification of micro-fossils. This graphic expert system shell was designed to allow users to enter information about a fossil in pictorial form: On the basis of this information, the system selects a best-match set of fossils. By computerizing knowledge elicitation and entry into the system, it was possible to reduce development time and cost....