That te pauldrons are not separate from the chest piece.

Indeed, it may be taken as evidence that points towards this, but it doesn't actually confirm anything. People have said things like this many times before, but it's still not conclusive proof. I'd like to believe we have seperate pauldrons now, and maybe we do, but as of yet, we haven't seen anything that actually confirms it, and the only way a screenshot could confirm it is if we saw a screenshot depicting the player's inventory, with all equipped armor shown, with a clear "left pauldron" and "right pauldron" visible, for now, the pictures don't actually confirm anything.

I'd also argue that it would seem rather odd if pauldrons were seperate that Bethesda would show so many images consistently showing only one pauldron on the same side. I mean, maybe when they chose the armor that what seems to be their main promotional character wears, they decided to go with the single pauldron look, but why would so many characters all wear that same setup? One possility is that they have no choice, because that's just the way the armor they wear is designed, and the pauldrons are integrated into the cuirass, or alternately, there's just a single pauldron slot for both left and right like gloves were in Oblivion, and for some armors, the single pauldron on one side setup is used. That way, you'd be able to have pauldrons that don't match your cuirass, but wouldn't be able to wear two non-matching pauldrons.

I agree. the pauldrons could be on a separate body part slot, ala fallouts armor addons. And not necessarily in an armor slot dedicated to pauldrons. So really how many armor pieces you can equip is still debatable and if pauldrons is actually one of them is open too, pauldrons could just be part of the modular way the assets are created and set up as and addon just to make a visible diversity.

I still don't know.

http://i.imgur.com/0Btn8.png
It's the same armor. Have you run across any armor that has a pauldron version and a non-pauldron version in Oblivion?

Whatever the answer is, does that mean Skyrim doesn't?

Unfortunately, I'd have to agree with this.
As much as I want separate pauldrons and chest pieces, it's not confirmed.

joy