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Boyer diss 2009 1046..

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MATERIALS AND METHODS<br />

Material examined<br />

All known specimens referable to the Plesiadapidae and representing a major or<br />

critical portion of the cranium were examined in this study except for MNHN CR 7377,<br />

an isolated squamosal glenoid, petrosal, and ectotympanic of Plesiadapis tricuspidens<br />

from the Berru locality near Reims, France, which could not be located. Previously<br />

unpublished, or largely undescribed, specimens studied include all cranial material<br />

referable to a single specimen of Plesiadapis cookei. UM 87990, the primary focus of<br />

this report, is a skull and skeleton discovered in 1987 at University of Michigan locality<br />

SC-117 in strata of the Fort Union Formation, dated to the middle Clarkforkian (late<br />

Paleocene biochron Cf-2) in the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming. It was found preserved in<br />

a freshwater limestone nodule and was prepared using acid reduction techniques<br />

described in Bloch and <strong>Boyer</strong> (2001).<br />

P. cookei is compared to other plesiadapids including Pronothodectes gaoi<br />

(UALVP 46685, 46687 and 49105), Nannodectes intermedius (USNM 309902), N.<br />

gidleyi (AMNH 17388), other species of Plesiadapis, mainly P. tricuspidens (MNHN<br />

CR 125, 126, 965, 4306; and the Pellouin skull), and the fragmentary, edentulous rostrum<br />

of P. anceps (YPM-PU 19642). Other specimens included for comparison are isolated<br />

petrosals of P. tricuspidens (MNHN BR 17414-19, 1371). For the most part, the<br />

comparative sample of plesiadapids utilized here represents the study sample of Chapter<br />

2.<br />

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