Boyer diss 2009 1046..

Vertebral column
Vertebral column description.—Much of the vertebral column is preserved but,
for the most part, positional information was not recorded as it was prepared. Thus,
assignments of vertebrae to various positions of the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and caudal
regions are based on specific morphological features and assumed morphological and
metrical trends. For instance, the sixth cervical vertebra is identified based on the
presence of a hypertrophied anterior tubercle. As another example, the first thoracic
vertebra is identified as such because it has a body with a shallower dorsoventral depth
than any other preserved thoracic vertebrae. There are bound to be mistakes in this
seriation. Hopefully, more complete specimens and better comparative data will
illuminate such misidentifications.
Due to the column being preserved in disarticulation near the skeleton of
Uintacyon, it is possible that some vertebrae may not actually belong to P. cookei;
however, a good number of vertebrae in the skeleton of Uintacyon remain associated with
its skull, which is still partly embedded in limestone. Furthermore, N. gidleyi and N.
intermedius preserve vertebrae from all regions of the column. These other plesiadapid
bones help in confirming the identity of vertebrae from UM 87990 as belonging to P.
cookei. Still, it would not be surprising if some vertebrae of Uintacyon were mistakenly
attributed to P. cookei; however, this is most likely to be true for the more distal caudal
vertebral positions.
Because the vertebral column was not preserved in articulation, and because there
are definitely some vertebrae missing, it is not clear exactly how many vertebrae would
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