Dama clactoniana

Dama clactoniana
Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene
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Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Genus: Dama
Species:
D. clactoniana
Binomial name
Dama clactoniana
Falconer in Murchison, 1868

Dama clactoniana is an extinct species of fallow deer (genus Dama). It lived during the Middle Pleistocene (with fossils spanning around 500-300,000 years ago). It is widely agreed to be the Dama species most closely related and likely ancestral to the two living species of fallow deer (being sometimes treated as a subspecies of Dama dama as Dama dama clactoniana) and like them has palmate antlers.[1]

Description

While the size of the species is variable, specimens tend to be on average larger than both living fallow deer species. The fourth lower premolar is not molarized.[2] Unlike earlier species of Dama and like living fallow deer, the antlers are palmate,[1] with the palmation being narrower than in living European fallow deer (Dama dama).[3]

Distribution

Specimens are known from Western Europe, including Italy[2] and Britain.[4]

Palaeoecology

Evidence from the site of Fontana Aruccio in Italy shows that D. clactoniana was primarily a browser.[5]

Relationship with humans

Evidence has been found for the butchery Dama clactoniana during the Clactonian period (~424-415,000 years ago) in Britain by Homo heidelbergensis.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b van der Made, Jan; Rodríguez-Alba, Juan José; Martos, Juan Antonio; Gamarra, Jesús; Rubio-Jara, Susana; Panera, Joaquín; Yravedra, José (April 2023). "The fallow deer Dama celiae sp. nov. with two-pointed antlers from the Middle Pleistocene of Madrid, a contemporary of humans with Acheulean technology". Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 15 (4). doi:10.1007/s12520-023-01734-3. hdl:10261/307292. ISSN 1866-9557.
  2. ^ a b Mecozzi, Beniamino; Sardella, Raffaele; Breda, Marzia (March 2024). "Late Early to late Middle Pleistocene medium-sized deer from the Italian Peninsula: implications for taxonomy and biochronology". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 104 (1): 191–215. doi:10.1007/s12549-023-00583-1. ISSN 1867-1594.
  3. ^ Breda, Marzia; Lister, Adrian M. (June 2013). "Dama roberti, a new species of deer from the early Middle Pleistocene of Europe, and the origins of modern fallow deer". Quaternary Science Reviews. 69: 155–167. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.029.
  4. ^ a b McNabb, John (2020), Groucutt, Huw S. (ed.), "Problems and Pitfalls in Understanding the Clactonian", Culture History and Convergent Evolution, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 29–53, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46126-3_3, ISBN 978-3-030-46125-6, retrieved 2024-07-28
  5. ^ Strani, Flavia; DeMiguel, Daniel; Bona, Fabio; Sardella, Raffaele; Biddittu, Italo; Bruni, Luciano; De Castro, Adelaide; Guadagnoli, Francesco; Bellucci, Luca (1 May 2015). "Ungulate dietary adaptations and palaeoecology of the Middle Pleistocene site of Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni, Central Italy)". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 496: 238–247. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.01.041. Retrieved 10 September 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.


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