 The name "thecodont" is Greek for "socket-tooth", referring to the fact that thecodont teeth were set in sockets in the jawbones; an archosaurian characteristic that was inherited by the dinosaurs.While the taxon Thecodontia is obsolete, the term "thecodont" remains in use as an anatomical description of teeth in bony sockets; in addition to species formerly in this group (such as crocodiles and dinosaurs), mammals also possess thecodont dentition, which evolved independently.They constitute an evolutionary grade of animals, a "wastebasket taxon" for any archosaur other than a crocodilian, a pterosaur, or a dinosaur (any basal archosaur).