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With a record that spans approximately 300 million years (late Cambrian through the Triassic/Jurassic transition, i.e., the "Conodontozoic"), conodonts witnessed all principal events in the evolution of life on Earth, from the invasion of the land to the exploration of the air, from the explosion of biomineralization in the oceans to the rise of dinosaurs and mammals, including three of the major extinction events that occurred in the Phanerozoic. Mainly used for biostratigraphic or geochemical studies, the potential of conodonts to help unravel changes perceived to be of global extent rarely has been explored. While specialists have identified rapid changes in conodont element morphology throughout their history, the conodont animal has often been perceived to have been a static entity in a constantly evolving world, when biological equilibrium in the oceans was undergoing profound alteration and faunal recoveries took place in phases that seem to have had recurrent patterns. It is now essential that we begin to further investigate how conodonts, as biologic entities, responded to or were impacted by palaeogeographic changes, eustatic and climatic fluctuations, shifting redox conditions, and major faunal turnovers and reorganizations that took place during the "Conodontozoic". • Introductory paper to a special volume on conodonts. • Conodonts represent a unique archive of information for over 300 million years. • Global oceanic events can be traced and their temporal pattern precisely calibrated by conodonts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]