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Docodonta
Docodonta is an order of extinct mammaliaforms that lived during the mid- to late-Mesozoic era. Their most distinguishing physical features were their relatively sophisticated set of molars, from which the order gets its name. In the fossil record, Docodonta is represented primarily by isolated teeth and bits of jawbones. While most of these specimens have been found across former Laurasia (modern-day North America, Europe, and Asia), some have also been found from Gondwana (modern-day India and Southern Hemisphere).
Docodonts are not quite as closely related to the placentals and marsupials as the monotremes are, so they are not included among the crown-group mammals. Because of the complexity of their molars and the fact that they possess the dentary-squamosal jaw joint, though, they have generally been regarded as mammals. Some authors do limit the term "Mammalia" to the crown group, however, excluding mammaliaforms like the docodonts.
Docodonts are traditionally thought to have been primarily herbivorous or insectivorous, but ''Castorocauda'' and ''Haldanodon'' were specialised for an aquatic lifestyle, and indeed docodonts as a whole might have had tendencies towards aquatic habits given their prevalence in wetland environments.〔Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation: Bulletin 36〕
==See also==
* Evolution of mammals
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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