Cynodont reptile with incipient mammalian jaw articulation.
A diagnostic mammalian character is jaw articulation between squamosal and dentary bones, replacing the quadrate-articular joint of reptiles. A newly discovered Argentinian Middle Triassic form shows, for the first time in an ancestral reptile, definite evidence of a squamosal-dentary articulation supplementary to the persistent primitive connection.
D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D008322:Mammals; D010161:Paleodontology; D012104:Reptiles; D013704:Temporomandibular Joint