Suture closure as a paradigm to study late growth in Recent and fossil mammals: a case study with giant deer and dwarf deer skulls

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Swiss National Research Council (3100A0-116013). I thank L. Costeur, M. Haffner, F. Mayer, S. Hertwig, M. Nussbaumer, O. Grönwall, S. Kullander, F. Zachos, L. Block, O. Hampe, J. de Vos, and R. van Zelst for providing access to collections. R. Asher kindly provided pictures of Megaloceros skulls. L. Wilson, T. Scheyer, and other members of our group in Zürich provided constructive discussion. A. Lister, P. D. Polly, S. Herring, and one anonymous reviewer kindly made extensive and thoughtful suggestions that much helped to improve this paper; if there any remaining mistakes these are of course my doing. I very much thank J. de Vos for the kind introduction to Candiacervus and for access to fossil materials.