Docofossor

Docofossor is an extinct mammaliaform (a docodont) from the Jurassic period. Its remains have been recovered in China from 160-million-year-old rocks. It appears to have been the earliest-known subterranean mammaliaform, with adaptations remarkably similar to the modern Chrysochloridae, the golden moles.

==Discovery== left|thumb|Life restoration of D. brachydactylus The fossil of Docofossor brachydactylus, holotype BMNH 131735, along with that of Agilodocodon scansorius, was originally found by farmers near Nanshimen in the province of Hebei in a layer of the Chinese Tiaojishan Formation (Oxfordian) and acquired by the Beijing Museum of Natural History. The holotype consists of a compressed skeleton with skull and lower jaws, preserved on a plate and counterplate, along with soft-tissue remnants. The shoulder girdle area and the tail have been damaged. The type species Docofossor brachydactylus was named and described by Zhe-Xi Luo, Meng Qingjin, Ji Qiang, Liu Di, Zhang Yuguang, and April I. Neander in the journal Science in 2015. The generic name refers to the membership of the Docodonta and a burrowing lifestyle, fossor meaning "digger" in Latin. The specific name is derived from Greek βραχύς, "short", and δάκτυλος, "finger", referring to the reduction of the finger phalanges.