graptolite, any member of an extinct group of small, aquatic colonial animals that first became apparent during the Cambrian Period (542 million to 488 million years ago) and that persisted into the Early Carboniferous Period (359 million to 318 million years ago). Graptolites were floating animals that have been most frequently preserved as carbonaceous impressions on black shales, but their fossils have been found in a relatively uncompressed state in limestones. They possessed a chitinous (fingernail-like) outer covering and lacked mineralized hard parts. When found as impressions, the specimens are flattened, and much detail is lost.

The graptolite animal was bilaterally symmetrical and tentacled. It has been suggested that graptolites are related to the hemichordates, a primitive group of invertebrates. Graptolites have proved to be very useful for the stratigraphic correlation of widely separated rock units and for the finer division of Lower Paleozoic rock units (Cambrian to Devonian); examples include the genera Climacograptus, Clonograptus, Didymograptus, Diplograptus, Monograptus, Phyllograptus, and Tetragraptus. Graptolites show a gradual development through time, and evolutionary relationships between different graptolite groups have been discovered and analyzed.