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. The holotype of E. lunensis is PVSJ 422, it's known from a nearly complete skull of about in length. It was found in the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina.Ecteninion at Fossilworks.org It has been interpreted as a basal eucynodont. The holotype is in the collection of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan.
Body size Although specimens larger than the holotype are present in the Ischigualasto Formation, they are notably smaller than Trucidocynodon from the Santa Maria Formation.
Phylogeny Ecteninion in a cladogram after Hopson & Kitching (2001):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
Cladogram after Stefanello et al. (2023):
References
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.