Fossil cervids from China and Tibet: new evidence of evolutionary key events
Evolution, Anthropology
Systematics and Morphology (Zoology)
Final Report Abstract
Concerted collaboration between Asian and European experts may help to complete the understanding of the evolutionary history of Cervidae. Major key events are the origination and diversification of stem cervids during the Early and Middle Miocene as well as the divergence and diversification of crown cervids from the Middle Miocene to today. The focus of the project is the contribution of new fossil antler finds from inner Mongolia and Tibet in context of their systematic, stratigraphic, and geographic provenance. All fossils evidence novel extremata. Lower Miocene Inner Mongolian stem cervid antlers shed new light on the early evolution of deer. They compete with so far much better documented European records of stem cervids by providing a 1.5 Ma older minimum age of origination of Cervidae at 19.7 Ma. Further, they make Asia more likely the place of cervid origin than Europe and demonstrate a wider diversity during their initial diversification than known from Europe. Records from China and Europe prove a Eurasian-wide dispersal, and with this an early ecological success of major stem cervid lineages soon after their first appearance. Upper Miocene stem cervid antlers from Inner Mongolia postdate all other stem cervid records known and prove stem cervid existence up to the late Miocene for the first time. Eastern Asia may have served as a relic territory for these ancient animals, while all over Eurasia crown cervids started their successful radiation. Upper Miocene crown cervid antlers from the Tibetian Plateau prove the occurrence of a giant deer among earliest crown cervid clades long before Pleistocene cervine Megalocerus giganteus and capreoline Cervalces latifrons. and suggests novel aspects of cervid evolution potentially related to an existence in the harsh environments of the high plateau that were previously unexplored. Ongoing field exploration in China and enhanced Sino-European collaboration promises the discovery of further material that will help to further clarify these new aspects in cervid evolution, but also bring to light more unexplored aspects advancing the understanding of these animals.
