eLife Assessment
This valuable study presents the first detailed and comprehensive description of brain sulcus anatomy of a range of carnivoran species based on a robust manual labeling model allowing species comparisons. The database and method for reconstructing cortical surfaces are compelling, and the evidence supporting the conclusions is solid. Despite the additional specimen, the evaluation of intra-species variations remains limited, but an insight into the inter-individual variability is now available for certain species. Exploring the associations between sulcal length and behavioral characteristics further suggests the potential of sulci as a proxy of functional organization. Setting an instructive foundation for comparative anatomy, this study will be of interest to neuroscientists and neuroimaging researchers interested in that field, as well as in brain morphology and sulcal patterns, their phylogeny and ontogeny in relation to functional development and behaviour.