Fossil cervids from China and Tibet: new evidence of evolutionary key events

鹿角是鹿科动物（鹿和近亲）的共同特征，具有物种特有的形态。鹿角化石不仅可以追溯这些动物的起源，还可以详细记录它们的进化史。最近在中国和西藏的化石遗址的挖掘和收集提供了鹿角遗骸，这表明物种多样性更大，发生模式与之前认为的不同。利用欧洲和亚洲的专门知识，对欧亚鹿科的系统分布和时空分布进行修订，旨在作为重新解释中新世早期鹿科和欧亚鹿科辐射的基础。这两个事件都是鹿科进化过程中的关键事件。

Antlers are the unique shared character of cervids (deer and kin) and have a species specific morphology. Fossil antlers not only allow for tracing these animals into deep time and date their origin, but also record their evolutionary history in detail. Recent excavations and collecting at fossil sites in China and Tibet provided antler remains which point to a larger species diversity with a different occurrence pattern than thought previously. An integrative project dealing with the revision of systematics and spatio-temporal dispersal of Eurasian Cervidae, by expertise from Europe and Asia, is meant to serve as a basis for reinterpretation of the early Miocene radiation of stem cervids and the radiation of Eurasian cervine Cervidae. Both events were key events during the evolution of Cervidae.