Docodon
genus of mammals
Docodon (meaning 'beam tooth') is an extinct genus of docodont mammaliaform from the Late Jurassic of Western North America. It was the first docodont to be named.
Description
Docodon was the first docodontan cynodont found and named, and later gave its name to the family Docodontidae as well as the order Docodonta. Docodonts had more complex shaped teeth than other early non-mammalian mammaliaforms, with piercing and crushing surfaces that would have allowed members of this family to eat a wider range of food types. These complex teeth are more similar to those of later mammal groups, but evolved independently of them.
Analysis of the enamel microstructure of D. victor has shown that the species possessed prismatic enamel.
Unlike many of its coexisting mammal relatives from the Mesozoic, Docodon is known from a large number of teeth and jaws of differing growth stages. This has made it possible to study the growth of this docodontan, and has revealed how docodont jaws change from juvenile stages to adulthood.
Discovery
Docodon was discovered by William Harlow Reed and named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1880. Like many other early small mammaliaforms, it is known mainly from fossilized teeth and jaws, as these are the hardest parts of the body and survive more easily in the fossil record.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Docodon” as genus of mammals. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of mammals. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3232173. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1880.
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This entry incorporates text from “Docodon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.