Chitinozoa (English singular: chitinozoan, plural: chitinozoans) are a group of flask-shaped marine microfossils (50-2000 micrometres) which appear dark or almost opaque when viewed using a light microscope. They are used as stratigraphic markers in biostratigraphy from Ordovician,Silurian to Devonian. They have no neck (Family Desmochitinidae) , a badly defined neck/flexure (Family Conochitinidae) or a well defined neck/flexure (Family Lagenochitinidae). The chamber is closed by an operculum (Order Operculatifera) or a prosome (Order Prosomatifera).

Alfred Eisenack was the first to give a detailed description of chitinozoa in 1931.

External links

• CIMP Chitinozoan Subcommission
• Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paléozoique (CIMP), international commission for Palaeozoic palynology.
• Centre for Palynology, University of Sheffield, UK
• The Micropalaeontological Society
• The American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP)

Paleontology | Fossils

Kitinozoo | Chitinozoa