Docodontidae

Docodonta is an order of extinct Mesozoic mammaliaforms. They were among the most common mammaliaforms of their time, persisting from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous across the continent of Laurasia. They are distinguished from other early mammaliaforms by their relatively complex molar teeth.

Docodontidae

Elsa Panciroli,Roger B.J. Benson,Vincent Fernandez,Matthew Humpage,Alberto Martín-Serra,Stig Walsh,Zhe-Xi Luo,Nichola… · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
DocodontaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 170.9 Mya to 141 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 184.2 Mya to 139.1 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 1 of 28 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 7 of 28 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 18 of 28 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 28 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous185–184 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences184–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–169 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences168–166 Mya — about 4 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 3 occurrences162–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences159–157 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 1 occurrence154–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 2 occurrences151–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 3 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 3 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 3 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 2 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 1 occurrence140–138 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences170.9 Mya141 Mya185.1 Mya138.2 Mya

28 occurrences of Docodontidae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

28 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

9 formations

Morrison — 40.42°N, 109.21°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WLulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°WQigu — 43.55°N, 87.26°EKota — 19.27°N, 79.52°EAlcobaça — 39.70°N, 8.80°WShishugou — 45.17°N, 88.92°EKilmaluag — 57.17°N, 6.11°WWhite Limestone — 51.75°N, 1.17°W

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The named rock units Docodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Docodontidae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Docodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

436 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Docodontidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

21 references

Each of the 28 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 9 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Docodontidae

Credit
Elsa Panciroli,Roger B.J. Benson,Vincent Fernandez,Matthew Humpage,Alberto Martín-Serra,Stig Walsh,Zhe-Xi Luo,Nichola…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDocodonta through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1929