If McIntyre wanted to discredit these methods and their conclusions, he could attack specific studies — for example, the original lab work
with conodonts, heating them to see how they changed, was done in open air — so the conditions were unrealistic, it must all be rubbish.
Ordovician strata are characterized by numerous and diverse trilobites and
conodonts (phosphatic fossils
with a tooth - like appearance) found in sequences of shale, limestone, dolostone, and sandstone.