Editing Graptolite (section)

==History==
The name "graptolite" originates from the genus ''Graptolithus'' ("writing on the rocks"), which was used by [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] in 1735 for inorganic [[Mineralization (biology)|mineralization]]s and incrustations which resembled actual fossils. In 1768, in the 12th volume of ''[[Systema Naturae]]'', he included ''G. sagittarius'' and ''G. scalaris'', respectively a possible plant fossil and a possible graptolite. In his 1751 ''Skånska Resa'', he included a figure of a "fossil or graptolite of a strange kind" currently thought to be a type of ''[[Climacograptus]]'' (a genus of biserial graptolites).

Graptolite fossils were later referred to a variety of groups, including other branching colonial animals such as [[Bryozoa|bryozoans]] ("moss animals") and [[Hydrozoa|hydrozoans]]. The term Graptolithina was established by Bronn in 1849, who considered them to represent [[Orthocone|orthoconic]] cephalopods. By the mid-20th century, graptolites were recognized as a unique group closely related to living pterobranchs in the genera ''[[Rhabdopleura]]'' and ''[[Cephalodiscus]]'', which had been described in the late 19th century. ''Graptolithus'', as a genus, was officially abandoned in 1954 by the [[International Code of Zoological Nomenclature|ICZN]].<ref name="Bulman">Bulman, M. (1970) ''In'' Teichert, C. (ed.). ''[[Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology]]. Part V. Graptolithina, with sections on Enteropneusta and Pterobranchia''. (2nd Edition). Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Boulder, Colorado and Lawrence, Kansas, XXXII + 163 pp.</ref>