The species is notable for providing insight into the evolution of the ability to chew and suckle in early relatives of mammals, by preserving a nearly intact
hyoid in the throat. This bone is important in mammals because it allows them to suckle, and move their tongue with precision. The complexity of the structure in
Microdocodon suggests that chewing and suckle evolved before in the precursors to Mammalia, the mammaliaforms, but after their split with the earlier
cynodonts. This supports previous conclusions that an important feature that marks crown mammals (Mammalia) from the mammaliaforms is the
evolution of the middle ear, and the way in which it disconnected from its previous position in the mandible.
Microdocodon is an especially small early mammal, thought to have been a shrew-like insectivore weighing about 9 grams. It was probably capable of climbing and living in trees.
Microdocodon lived at the same time as semiaquatic
Castorocauda, the subterranean mammaliaform
Docofossor, and the arboreal
Agilodocodon, all known from the
Yanliao Biota. ==See also==