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

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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.