Synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography enhances our knowledge of the skull anatomy of a Late Triassic ecteniniid cynodont with hypercanines

Hypercanines, or hypertrophied canines, are observed in a wide range of both extinct and extant synapsids. In non-mammaliaform cynodonts, the Permo-Triassic forerunners of mammals, long canines are not uncommon, appearing in several unrelated taxa within the clade. Among them is Trucidocynodon riograndensis, a carnivorous ecteniniid cynodont from the Late Triassic of Brazil, which exhibits a specialized dentition, including spear-shaped incisors, very long and narrow canines, and sectorial postcanines with distally oriented cusps, all of which have finely serrated margins. Recent synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography of a large specimen (CAPPA/UFSM 0029; Várzea do Agudo site, Brazil) provides new insights into its lower jaw and dentition, as well as offers the first digital endocast of an ecteniniid. Our study reveals the presence of (i) putatively opened-root canines in the adult stage and the possible presence of unresorbed remnant of an old canine, which may indicate that the specimen stopped replacing its canines; (ii) lower canines that are longer than the upper canines and, in occlusion, were kept inside deep paracanine fossae that perforated the dorsal surface of the rostrum; (iii) a diastema between the incisors and lower canine, which is absent in the holotype; (iv) advanced brain structures, such as the absence of a pineal body, presence of cerebral hemispheres divided by the interhemispheric sulcus and expanded laterally, and a higher encephalization quotient than non-mammaliaform prozostrodonts, reflecting the homoplastic evolution of relative brain sizes observed in Triassic cynodont lineages. Finally, the abundance of carnivorous and omnivorous species at the Várzea do Agudo site, where the specimen was found-including the archosauriforms Dynamosuchus collisensis and Stenoscelida aurantiacus-suggests a diverse predator guild that warrants further investigation from a paleoecological perspective.