Boyer diss 2009 1046..

described plesiadapid bones including those of P. tricuspidens (MNHN BR-3-L, MNHN
R 450, MNHN BR-16-L and MNHN R 444), N. intermedius (USNM 442229), and N.
gidleyi (AMNH 17379). They found that these taxa had limbs that were shorter than
those of extant gliders, arboreal nongliders and paromomyids, but similar in proportional
length to those of terrestrial sciurids. Although the authors did not discuss the
significance of this finding, the results support the view of Gingerich (1976).
Hamrick (2001) plotted third digit ray proportions (metacarpal, proximal phalanx
and intermediate phalanx) of archontan mammals on ternary diagrams (a graph with three
axes where each axis represents the length of one of the bones of a digit ray in the form
of its percentage of the entire digit ray length). He included measurements from
undescribed bones of P. cookei (UM 87990) and found them to plot with scandentians
and to be separated from those of modern primates. He argued that euprimate manual
digit proportions were a “novel” innovation associated with the evolutionary origin and
subsequent adaptive radiation of the clade.
Bloch and Boyer (2002) added to Hamrick’s (2001) ternary diagram by plotting
digits of P. cookei and other plesiadapiforms (although they do not indicate which
particular specimens were plotted). They also provided the first figure (p. 1609, fig. 5B)
of a digit ray based on bones of P. cookei (UM 87990). They showed that nonplesiadapid
plesiadapiforms plot with euprimates and suggested that P. cookei is derived
in having scandentian-like proportions. Thus, they disagreed with Hamrick’s (2001)
suggestion that euprimates were characterized by a change in finger proportions
compared to plesiadapiforms. Instead, they concluded that long fingers, and the manual
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