Ecteninion Explained

Ecteninion is an extinct genus of meat-eating cynodonts that lived during the Late Triassic (Carnian) in South America. The type species Ecteninion lunensis was named by R.N. Martinez, C.L. May, and C.A. Forster in 1996. E. lunensis is known from a nearly complete skull of about 11cm (04inches) in length. It was found in the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina.^[1] It has been interpreted as a basal eucynodont. The holotype is in the collection of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan.

Phylogeny

Ecteninion in a cladogram after Hopson & Kitching (2001):^[2]

Cladogram after Stefanello et al. (2023):^[3]

Further reading

• Martinez et al. (1996) "A new carnivorous cynodont from the Ischigualasto formation (Late Triassic, Argentina), with comments on eucynodont phylogeny." J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 16(2), p. 271-284.

Notes and References

1. http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=67453 Ecteninion
2. Hopson, J. A. and Kitching, J. W. (2001). A probainognathian cynodont from South Africa and the phylogeny of non-mammalian cynodonts. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 156(1):5-35
3. Stefanello . M. . Martinelli . A. G. . Müller . R. T. . Dias-da-Silva . S. . Kerber . L. . A complete skull of a stem mammal from the Late Triassic of Brazil illuminates the early evolution of prozostrodontian cynodonts . Journal of Mammalian Evolution . 2023 . 30 . 2 . 299–317 . 10.1007/s10914-022-09648-y.