Graptolite

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈɡɹaptÉ™lʌɪt/

Origin

From Ancient Greek γραπτός ("painted, marked with letters") + -lite.

Full definition of graptolite

Noun

1. Any of a group of extinct aquatic colonial invertebrates, of the class Graptolithina, from the Cambrian and Carboniferous periods
• 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 70:The samples were black shale, and on the shales were some ancient fossils called graptolites.