Embryos in Deep Time: The Rock Record of Biological Development

Acknowledgments

vii I would like to thank the University of Zürich and its Faculty of Science, as well as the Institute of Paleontology, for providing an inspiring, challenging, and supportive environment in which I could write this book. Ithankcurrentandpastmembersofmylabandclosecolleagues for everything I learned from them: Ingmar Werneburg, Laura Wilson, Torsten Scheyer, Christian Mitgutsch, Massimo Delfino, Jasi Hugi, Christian Kolb, Dai Koyabu, James Neenan, Fredy Carlini, Sandrine Ladevèze, Corinne Wimmer, Jan Prochel, Peter Menke, Madeleine Geiger, Katja Polachowski, Fiona Straehl, Patricia Meier, Vera Weisbecker, Fernando Galliari, Lisa Rager, Thomas Schmelzle, and Anjali Goswami. I also thank several colleagues in Zürich and abroad for discussion of ideas and for kindly providing information: Lennart Olsson, Shigeru Kuratani, Mike Richardson, Hiroshi Nagashima, Hugo Bucher, Tom Kemp, John Spice, Norberto Giannini, Johannes Müller, Rainer Schoch, Shige Kuraku, Andreas Wagner, Inés Horovitz, Orangel Aguilera, Lionel Hautier, Renaud Lebrun, aCknowledgments viii / Acknowledgments Anjali Goswami, Norm MacLeod, Rick Madden, Martin Sander, Kathleen Smith, Paul Taylor, Rafael Jiménez, Nico Goudemand, Claude Monet, Michael Hautmann, Christian Klug, Heinz Furrer, Richard Hoffmann, Kenneth de Baets, Thomas Martin, Alexander Nützel, Claudia Hoffmann, Fredy Carlini, Karin Niffeler, and Séverine Urdy. I thank the contributors to the issue of Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology that I edited in 2010, for helping to inspire this book: Richard Cloutier, Zerina Johanson, Moya Smith and colleagues, Louise Humphrey, Christoph Zollikofer, Marcia Ponce de León, Martin Sander, Nicole Klein, Nadia Fröbisch, Florian Witzmann, Rainer Schoch, Jennifer Olori, Torsten Scheyer, and Massimo Delfino. Rob Asher in Cambridge, England, Laura Wilson and Torsten Scheyer in Zürich, and Ann-Christin Honnen in Berlin kindly and critically read early drafts and made very useful suggestions. Three anonymous reviewers and especially Michel Laurin very generously provided critiques and suggestions that improved the clarity of this work and helped me to avoid mistakes. Torsten Scheyer, Christian Mitgutsch, James Neenan, Lisa Rager, Kevin de-Carli (Zürich) and Nigel Hughes (Riverside) kindly revised parts of the text. Torsten Scheyer and Jasi Hugi provided much-needed advice on the paleohistology chapter; Christian Mitgutsch, on ontogeny and historical matters. Zhe-Xi Luo shared information on “early mammals” with his usual collegiality and good humor. Séverine Urdy (Zürich) generously provided extensive comments and insights relevant to bugs and shells. Any infelicities or inaccuracies that remain are entirely my responsibility. For help with graphics and formatting issues, I thank Morana Mihaljevic, Kevin De-Carli, Rosi Roth, Fiona Straehl, and Torsten Scheyer. Madeleine Geiger, Katja Polachowski, and Acknowledgments / ix Claudia Joehl skillfully prepared some of the figures. John A. Long (Los Angeles), Matt Friedman (Oxford), Jasmina Hugi (Zürich), Joachim Haug (New Haven), Pancho Goin (La Plata), Zhe-Xi Luo (Pittsburgh), Torsten Scheyer (Zürich), Christian Klug (Zürich), Christoph Zollikofer and Marcia Ponce de León (Zürich), Loïc Costeur (Basel), and Rainer Schoch (Stuttgart) very generously made figures available. For crucial and superb assistance, I thank Heike Götzmann for administrative matters and Heini Walter for IT matters. I also thank my Institute’s director, Hugo Bucher, for his support. Lynn Meinhardt, Kate Warne, and Chuck Crumly of the University of California Press promptly answered my many questions during the editorial process and kindly provided much advice on a variety of matters, and Sheila Berg provided very useful and comprehensive editorial and stylistic remarks on the manuscript. Wolfgang Maier in Tübingen has inspired my interest in ontogeny over the years and has been a much-appreciated mentor. Peter Holzwarth in Zürich, Rob Asher in Cambridge, AnnChristin Honnen in Kiel and Berlin, and my mother, Gloria Villagra , in Puerto La Cruz/Buenos Aires provided moral support. In the past few years I have been supported primarily by the Swiss Research Council (SNF) and by the University of Zürich. ix This page intentionally left blank ...