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Boyer diss 2009 1046..

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of the plesiadapiform skeleton. Extensive quantitative comparisons are provided to other<br />

plesiadapids, some non-plesiadapid plesiadapiforms, a few non-plesiadapiform<br />

Cretaceous and Paleocene eutherian mammals, and an extant sample consisting of<br />

various primates, treeshrews (Scandentia), the flying lemur Cynocephalus (Dermoptera),<br />

rodents, marsupials, and xenarthrans.<br />

Chapter 5 presents a species level cladistic analysis and phylogenetic hypothesis<br />

for members of the Plesiadapidae. An hypothesis for the cranial and postcranial<br />

morphology of the “ancestral plesiadapid” is generated by optimizing character<br />

information gleaned from the previous three chapters onto the new species level tree.<br />

The character codings representing the ancestral plesiadapid are then used to reevaluate<br />

previously hypothesized relationships between plesiadapids and other euarchontan<br />

groups. The outcome of this last analysis will therefore test the hypothesis that euprimate<br />

pedal grasping features were inherited from a plesiadapiform ancestor, as described<br />

above.<br />

Chapter 6 is an outline and summary of major conclusions.<br />

Organization of Dissertation Chapters<br />

In an effort to facilitate compartmentalization of this synthetic work for later<br />

publication, chapters 2-5 were written to stand as independent units. Therefore, each<br />

chapter has its own Abstract, Introduction, Abbreviations, Materials and/or Methods,<br />

Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, and References sections. This<br />

explains why there is no Materials and Methods chapter for the <strong>diss</strong>ertation as a whole.<br />

Furthermore, the figures and tables for each chapter are appended to the end of the<br />

7

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