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While skulls and limb bones have traditionally been emphasised in functional and ecological reconstructions, vertebrae are frequently overlooked. While isolated vertebrae are among the most commonly preserved postcranial elements, they are rarely found as complete vertebral columns, raising the question of whether isolated elements alone can yield meaningful ecological information. In this study, we assess the potential of vertebral morphology to predict two key ecological traits, running speed and hunting mode, using three\u2010dimensional geometric morphometrics across 10 presacral vertebrae from a broad sample of extant carnivorans. We evaluate the predictive power of individual vertebrae, regional groupings (cervical, thoracic, lumbar), and multi\u2010element combinations. Our results show that certain vertebrae retain strong ecological signals on their own, especially the first thoracic and lumbar elements. However, combining multiple vertebrae often dilutes ecological signal, likely due to their differing functional roles along the axial column. This highlights the importance of treating vertebral regions independently and suggests that single, strategically informative vertebrae may outperform multi\u2010element approaches in some contexts. We apply this framework to the extinct dire wolf (\n                    <jats:italic>Aenocyon dirus<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) and find contrasting signals along the spine, the first thoracic and lumbar vertebrae suggest adaptations for faster locomotion, while some cervical vertebrae indicate an intermediate running speed. This mosaic supports the idea that\n                    <jats:italic>A. dirus<\/jats:italic>\n                    occupied a complex ecological niche involving both active predation and scavenging. These findings underscore the power of vertebral morphology for ecological inference in fossil taxa, particularly when remains are fragmentary, and argue for a more nuanced use of isolated axial elements in reconstructing extinct carnivoran behaviour.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/jmor.70109","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]],"date-time":"2025-12-30T12:38:52Z","timestamp":1767098332000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ecological Inference From Isolated Vertebrae: Evaluating Functional Signal Across the Carnivoran Spine"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"287","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6229-7116","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julia A.","family":"Schwab","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Oxford University Museum of Natural History University of Oxford Oxford UK"},{"name":"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Manchester Manchester UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2542-3977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Borja","family":"Figueirido","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ecolog\u00eda y Geolog\u00eda Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Teatinos s\/n Universidad de M\u00e1laga M\u00e1laga Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1088-0497","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Katrina E.","family":"Jones","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Manchester Manchester UK"},{"name":"School of Earth Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","unstructured":"Adams D. 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