Data from: The endocast of Euparkeria sheds light on the ancestral archosaur nervous system

Understanding the evolution of the tetrapod brain is essential to trace
the history of ecomorphological diversification of modern clades. While
previous studies focused on the morphological transformation of the
nervous system along the dinosaur-bird transition, little is known about
the brain anatomy of archosauriformes and early archosaurs. Here, we
describe the endocast of Euparkeria capensis, a small-bodied, terrestrial
archosauriform closely related to Archosauria, with the goal of resolving
the current uncertainties surrounding the ancestral condition of the
archosaurian nervous system. The endocast of Euparkeria is sigmoidal, with
large olfactory bulbs, an expanded cerebral hemisphere and an elongated
flocculus. We suggest that this pivotal taxon was an active predator with
a remarkable olfactory acuity. Overall, the endocast of Euparkeria
resembles the ones observed in phytosaurs, crocodilians and early
dinosaurs, implying that modern crocodilians retain an archosaurian
plesiomorphic brain morphology.