Docodon
Name: Docodon
(beam tooth).
Phonetic: Doc-o-don.
Named By: Othniel Charles Marsh - 1881.
Synonyms: Diacynodon, Dicrocynodon,
Diplocynodon, Ennacodon, Enneodon.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Docodonta,
Docodontidae.
Species: D. striatus (type),
D. affinis, D. apoxys, D. crassus, D. superus, D.
victor.
Diet: Omnivore?
Size: Lower jaw roughly 34 millimetres long.
Body length roughly estimated at about 10 centimetres, though
this is highly speculative.
Known locations: USA, Colorado - Morrison
Formation, Utah - Morrison Formation, Wyoming - Morrison
Formation.
Time period: Kimmeridgian to Tithonian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Usually just teeth and jaws.
Docodon was a small animal that lived in North America during the late Jurassic. Though known mostly from teeth and jaw material, we can tell that Docodon had very complex teeth for the time, and that these may have been used to process a variety of things from insects to seeds and other things. This means that in the absence of actual stomach contents, Docodon is usually perceived to have been an omnivorous mammal.
Further reading
- Notice of new Jurassic mammals representing two new orders. -
The American Journal of Science and Arts, series 3
20(28):235-239 - Othniel Charles Marsh - 1880.
- Notice of new Jurassic mammals. - The American Journal of
Science and Arts, series 3 21(121-126):511-513 - Othniel
Charles Marsh - 1881.
The Late Jurassic mammal Docodon, from the
Morrison Formation of the
Black Hills, Wyoming: implications for abundance and biogeography
of the genus. - New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Bulletin 36:165-169. - J. R. Foster, K.C. Trujillo,
S.K. Madsen & J.E. Martin - 2006.
- American Mesozoic Mammalia. - Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of
Yale University 3(1):1-171- G. G. Simpson - 1929.
- A New Species of Docodon (Mammaliaformes:
Docodonta) from the
Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation and a Reassessment of Selected
Craniodental Characters in Basal Mammaliaforms. - Journal of
Mammalian Evolution - Guillermo W. Rougier, Amir S. Sheth,
Kenneth Carpenter, Lucas Appella-Guiscafre & Brian M.
Davis - 2014.
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