A Description of Two New Species of the Genus Rucervus (Cervidae, Mammalia) from the Early Pleistocene of Southeast Europe, with Comments on Hominin and South Asian Ruminants Dispersals

Roman Croitor

doi:10.3390/quat1020017

Abstract

The article attests the presence of the genus Rucervus in the paleontological record of Europe and presents the description of new species of large-sized deer Rucervus radulescui sp. nov. from the Early Pleistocene of Valea Grăunceanului (Southern Romania) and Rucervus gigans sp. nov. from the late Early Pleistocene of Apollonia-1 (Greece). The described cervid species represent two different evolutionary radiations of Rucervus that are grouped into the extinct subgenus Arvernoceros that represents the northern evolutionary radiation and the nominotypical subgenus that is regarded as the southern evolutionary radiation and represented today by only one species Rucervus duvaucelii. The evolutionary radiation and dispersals of Rucervus are regarded in the paleobiogeographic context of faunal exchanges between southeastern Europe, Caucasus, and Near East during the Early Pleistocene and the westward dispersal of early hominins in Eurasia.

Highlights

Fossil deer represent a peculiar element of Eurasian Early Pleistocene faunas met by early hominins during their out-of-Africa journey
This study provides a new look on the systematic position of large-sized deer from the
The comparative material includes the sample of Eucladoceros ctenoides from Sénèze that is stored in the Paleontological Museum of Claude Bernard University of Lyon 1; the mixed material of Arvernoceros ardei/Praeelaphus perrieri from Perrier-Etouaires stored in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris; and, the sample of giant deer Megaloceros giganteus from Ireland stored in several European paleontological collections

Summary

Introduction

Fossil deer represent a peculiar element of Eurasian Early Pleistocene faunas met by early hominins during their out-of-Africa journey. The meeting of hominins with cervids during their colonization of Eurasia is meaningful, since these two systematic groups are remarkable by their ecological opportunism and high tolerance to Early Pleistocene climate fluctuations [1,2,3,4]. In the light of early human colonization of the Mediterranean part of Europe, any additional information yielded by the paleontological record of Southeastern Europe is important and helps to understand the factors that triggered and shaped the early human dispersals in this European region and in the whole west Eurasian area [7,8,9]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion