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Subfossil remains of the Quaternary megafauna from two Ukrainian natural history collections stored at Kaniv Nature Reserve and the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine were examined. Most of the bones were collected in 1965–1966, in the building pit and the gateway of the Kaniv hydroelectric power plant. The fauna is represented at least by ten taxa (Gulo gulo, Mammuthus trogonterii chosaricus, Mammuthus intermedius, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Megaloceros giganteus, Alces alces, Bison priscus, Cervus elaphus, Capra cf. ibex, and Equus ferus). Skeletal parts are represented mainly by skulls, long bones, horns, and tusks. Based on the species composition of proboscideans, at least part of the faunal assemblage is dated by the end of the Middle Pleistocene (Dnieper Stage = Saale, Warta, MIS 6), but majority of bones could be older or younger (Late Pleistocene and Holocene age) due to the alluvial origin of accumulation.

A perfectly preserved left felid hemimandible has been found in fluvial deposits of the Po River near Cremona (Northern Italy). The fossil, found in allochthonous position within an alluvial bar, corresponding in morphology and size at the hemimandible of modern and fossil lions. The bone, in excellent conditions, is characterized by the presence of all the teeth and shows a slight erosion of the condyle and angular process indicating a very limited transport (rafting). Based on the comparison with a large dataset of morphometric measurements of cave lion and fossil leopard hemimandibles, the studied fossil is classified as a subadult female of the chronosubspecies Panthera spelaea intermedia. The mammalian fossil record from Po River consists predominantly of large herbivores Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, Bison priscus, Megaloceros giganteus, Mammuthus primigenius, Alces alces, Cervus elaphus, some carnivores like Panthera cf. pardus, Crocuta crocuta, Ursus arctos, Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes and primates such as Homo neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. The species composition indicates a mixing of different faunal assemblages from interglacial and glacial periods of the Late Pleistocene.

Previously published and original data on the Holocene distribution and extinction of ungulates in northern Eurasia are examined. Data on the relative and absolute age and finding places on the wild horse (Equus ferus Boddaert 1785), the European ass (Equus hydruntinus Regalia 1907), the giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus Blumenbach 1799), the steppe bison (Bison priscus Bojanus 1825), the musk ox (Ovibos moschatus Zimmermann 1780), and the aurochs (Bos primigenius Bojanus 1825) are analyzed and summarized; the patterns of changes in the species ranges and extinction processes are compared. It has been concluded that, in the last interglacial era, the limits of the ranges changed at different rates, not only in different species, but also in one species in different parts of the range.

The rediscovery of old collections and revision of the fossil material from more than 30 Sudeten caves and rock shelters allow reconstructing the faunal changes during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. We found that the composition of mammalian assemblages of Sudety Mts during MIS 3 differed significantly from the Holocene and modern one, and reflected the colder climate. Mammals belonging to the Mammuthus-Coelodonta faunal complex inhabited open flattened lowlands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) surrounding Sudeten area. Several large carnivores (Canis lupus spelaeus, Ursus arctos priscus, Ursus ingressus, Gulo gulo, Mustela eversmanii, Panthera spelaea spelaea, Crocuta crocuta spelaea) as well as herbivores (Mammuthus primigenius, Coleodonta antiquitatis, Megaloceros giganteus, Rangifer tarandus, large form of Equus ferus, Bison priscus, and Ovibos moschatus) made up the core of this assemblage. Our studies showed that most of these faunal elements were also present in Sudety Mts, despite the previous opinion that these mountains formed an effective natural barrier during the Late Pleistocene. Besides, it seems that during cold phases they could be refugees for forest animals, which were also present in the Mammuthus-Coelodonta faunal complex, but lower quantities. They avoided flat treeless Silesian lowlands and concentrated in mountainous and hilly regions. In this context, during the Late Pleistocene Sudety Mts were a “forested island” confined to elevated areas or river valleys. Range extensions, contractions, and continuations on different scales resulted in mammalian paleoassemblages which differed in particular from the modern ones. The analysis of the mammal faunas from Sudeten sites revealed that there were three heterochronous mammalian faunal complexes replaced each other throughout the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. Differences between these assemblages resulted from changes in morphology, areas and extinction of several species. The existence of different faunal elements was distinguished by the chronological and geographical change in the structure of mammalian assemblages. At the end of MIS 3 most of the cold-adapted species from the Mammuthus-Coelodonta faunal complex like Ursus ingressus, Panthera spelaea spelaea, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Bison priscus, and Megaloceros giganteus disappeared. During the second phase, at the latest Pleistocene and the Holocene boundary, all the species of the Mammuthus-Coelodonta faunal complex still not became extinct. Several species from this assemblage disappeared later in the Holocene. It should be noted that the role of the human in the changes of faunal complexes and species extinctions during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene in the Sudety Mts cannot be so far demonstrated.

The article presents a preliminary morphological description of the holotype of Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) that serves for the description of the species. The article proposes a taxonomical and morphological revision of the nominotypical subspecies M. giganteus giganteus and morphological comparison with other subspecies of M. giganteus. The cluster analysis of diagnostic craniodental and antler characters revealed the systematic position and phylogenetic relationships of M. giganteus with other cervid groups. The genus Praedama is regarded as a closely related phylogenetic branch that linked to the direct cursorial forerunner of Megaloceros that evolved in the middle latitudes of Western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. The genus Dama has a distant relationship with Megaloceros and represents an earlier phylogenetic branch that evolved in the Ponto-Mediterranean area. The article discusses the secondary adaptations of M. giganteus forms to forest and woodland habitats in Europe and general paleobiogeographic features of the Megaloceros lineage.

The paleontological research during the last 160 years in Greece has recovered continental deer fossils from at least 100 localities, which span geochronologically from the late Miocene to the end of the Pleistocene, while scanty dental remains date from the middle Miocene. The following species are documented: Procapreolus pentelici (late Miocene), Procapreolus cusanus, Croizetoceros ramosus, Metacervocerus rhenanus, Eucladoceros cf. ctenoides, Rucervus gigans, Praedama aff. savini, Dama vallonnetensis (late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene), Praemegaceros pliotarantoides, Praemegaceros verticornis, Alces latifrons, Megaloceros giganteus, Cervus elaphus, Dama dama, Capreolus capreolus, “Cervus” peloponnesiacus (Middle and Late Pleistocene), while several other samples are incomplete and not identifiable to the species level. Despite their comparatively scarce representation in the fossil faunas, the cervids became more common in time periods with cooler climate, like during the Late Pleistocene.

Characteristics of the postcranial skeleton of Arvernoceros ardei and Cervus perrieri from Perrier (France, late Pliocene, 2.78 ± 0.01 Ma BP, MNQ 16b) are described and distinguished. This was made possible by using the skeletal remains of A. ardei from Kaltensundheim (Germany, Thuringia, late Pliocene age) as identification keys. C. perrieri did not occur in Kaltensundheim. Twenty-five skeletal differences of A. ardei and C. perrieri are detected, and are compared to the genera Eucladoceros, Cervus, Praemegaceros and Megaloceros. The results demonstrate a high level of conformity of A. ardei with Eucladoceros in predominantly plesiomorphic features; major differences exist between A. ardei and Cervus, and A. ardei and Megaloceros. C. perrieri shows several similarities with Cervus elaphus, in which both differ from A. ardei and Eucladoceros. An association of C. perrieri to the genus Cervus is indicated by the postcranial skeleton, as has been discussed in the literature based on antler characteristics. By the findings of Kaltensundheim, a precise association of dental and skeletal characteristics to A. ardei is possible now. The allocation of E. giulii from Untermasfeld (Germany, Thuringia, Jaramillo event) to the genus Arvernoceros appears doubtful based on the dental and skeletal features of A. ardei from Kaltensundheim and Perrier. The original classification within the genus Eucladoceros is considered probable.

The “giant” beaver, Trogontherium cuvieri Fischer, 1809, is an extinct species that was widely distributed all over Palaearctic Realm. And the well-approved temporal range of this species is from the Late Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene. Here we report a new specimen of T. cuvieri from the upper Pleistocene of the Songhua River drainage area near Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China. It coexists with a typical north Eurasia Mammuthus-Coelodonta fauna, in which major elements including Mammuthus primigenius, Equus ferus, Procapra sp, Bison sp, Megaloceros sp., Marmota sp., Castor fiber, etc. The 14C dating on mammal bones from the same site yields an average age of ca. 40ka BP, falling in the range of the MIS-3a. The discovery of T. cuvieri indicates that this wide distributed species survived into the late Pleistocene in northeast China. During MIS-3a, the northeast China was rather warm and humid, and probably presented a favorable environment for T. cuvieri. The ultimate extinction of T. cuvieri, still need further research and more evidence, could be related more likely to hunting by the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers than climate change.

Following a recent chronostratigraphic revision of 17 fossiliferous sites hosting assemblages constituting local faunas of the Aurelian Mammal Age for peninsular Italy, we provide a re-structured biochronological framework and discuss the current validity and significance of the middle Pleistocene Faunal Units (FU) for this region. Contrasting with the previous model of a wide faunal renewal during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9 (∼ 330 ka), the First Occurrences (FO) of several species of the Torre in Pietra FU are significantly backdated and referred to the Fontana Ranuccio FU (530–400 ka). We show that the faunal renewal was more gradual and occurred earlier than previously assumed. Many taxa that are typical of the late Pleistocene register their FO in the Fontana Ranuccio FU, latest Galerian, which is characterized by the almost total disappearance of Villafranchian taxa and by the persistence of typical Galerian taxa such as Dama clactoniana, Bison schoetensacki and Ursus deningeri, and by the FO of Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, S. hemitoechus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Cervus elaphus eostepahnoceros, Ursus spelaeus, Canis lupus, and Vulpes vulpes. The next Torre in Pietra FU is characterized only by the FO of Megaloceros giganteus and Mustela putorius. However, we observe that MIS 9 marks the actual moment when the faunal assemblages of this region are represented only by those taxa characterizing the late middle Pleistocene and late Pleistocene. For this reason, we propose to still consider the Torre in Pietra (lower levels) local fauna as a conventional boundary for the Galerian-Aurelian transition. Finally, we remark that the strong faunal renewal in MIS 13, with five FOs, coincides with the temperate climatic conditions due to the absence of marked glacial periods that could have favored the FO and the subsequent spread of these taxa.

Late Quaternary climatic fluctuations in the Northern Hemisphere had drastic effects on large mammal species, leading to the extinction of a substantial number of them. The giant deer ( Megaloceros giganteus ) was one of the species that became extinct in the Holocene, around 7660 calendar years before present. In the Late Pleistocene, the species ranged from western Europe to central Asia. However, during the Holocene, its range contracted to eastern Europe and western Siberia, where the last populations of the species occurred. Here, we generated 35 Late Pleistocene and Holocene giant deer mitogenomes to explore the genetics of the demise of this iconic species. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of the mitogenomes suggested five main clades for the species: three pre-Last Glacial Maximum clades that did not appear in the post-Last Glacial Maximum genetic pool, and two clades that showed continuity into the Holocene. Our study also identified a decrease in genetic diversity starting in Marine Isotope Stage 3 and accelerating during the Last Glacial Maximum. This reduction in genetic diversity during the Last Glacial Maximum, coupled with a major contraction of fossil occurrences, suggests that climate was a major driver in the dynamics of the giant deer.

We conducted a study of intraspecific differentiation and sexual dimorphism in skulls of giant deer found in Serbia by employing methods of geometric morphometrics. The sample consisted of nine males (seven belonging to Megaloceros giganteus cf. ruffii and two belonging to subspecies M. giganteus cf. giganteus) and two females (both classified as M. giganteus cf. ruffii), photographed in ventral and lateral views. The statistical analyses did find significant shape differences between possible subspecies and sexes for the lateral cranium view but not for the ventral. Possible subspecies differed in the overall skull robustness. Sexual shape dimorphism consisted of transition from higher and elongated skulls in females, to more robust and dorsoventrally flattened skulls in males. The allometry was not proven to be statistically significant, but the shape changes related to size variation could be visually described. Some of the shape differences related to sexual dimorphism can be interpreted as an adaptation for bearing large antlers in males. Even with small sample size, we got statistically supported differences between possible subspecies and sexual shape dimorphism in the lateral view of the giant deer skull. In analyses that showed no statistical support, methods of geometric morphometrics still provided good visualization of shape variation.

The molar of a giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799), was discovered in sandy deposits of the North Sea, about 10 km west of the present shoreline of the Netherlands. Compacted masticated plant remains were preserved in the molar's deep folds. A palaeoecological analysis of these plant remains shows the complete dominance of pollen from Artemisia (sage) and other Asteraceae Tubuliflorae (Compositae), indicating that the animal foraged in a steppe environment, and may have preferred to eat Artemisia, which contain a high level of nutrients such as calcium and phosphorous components, which are important for antler building. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the plant remains are of mid‐Weichselian age [38 570 (+300, −290) 14C a BP, Greenland Interstadial‐11]. This is the first study of the food choice of M. giganteus based on palaeoecological evidence. We hypothesize about links between the extirpation of M. giganteus at the onset of the Holocene in North‐West Europe and the transition from a landscape with highly dynamic geomorphological processes and consequently prevalence of immature and nutrient‐rich soils, to a less dynamic landscape with stable, leached and acidifying soils, and the decline of Artemisia and other calciphilous plants.

The intra-montane Guadix-Baza Basin is one of the few continental basins in Europe that hosts a well-dated set of fossiliferous sites spanning from the latest Miocene to the late Middle Pleistocene. The Cúllar de Baza 1 (CB-1) represents a key site to investigate the effects of the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, considered a fundamental transformation in the Earth’s climate state. Our review and update of the large mammal assemblage, and particularly equids, is of paramount relevance to understand the systematic affinities and the evolution of the Early and Middle Pleistocene European horses. We confirm the occurrence of two different taxa, the medium sized Equus altidens and the larger E. suessenbornensis. Moreover, we illustrate that CB-1 is essential for the biochronological studies of the latest Early Pleistocene/Middle Pleistocene transition (Epivillafranchian/Galerian ELMA); in particular with regard to the Last Occurrences of the Etruscan rhino Stephanorhinus etruscus and the large deer Megaloceros savini and the First Occurrence of the water-rat Arvicola mosbachensis in the Iberian peninsula. Finally, a development of a mosaic environment characterised the CB-1 site contrasting with the conditions reported for other Iberian late Early and Middle Pleistocene localities., This research received support from the SYNTHESYS Project ES-TAF-5621 http://www.synthesys.info/ which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 «Capacities » Programme at Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) and from Project CGL 2016-79334-P (Dirección General de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain).

A slender right felid tibia has been found in river deposits of the Po River in the territory of Cremona (Northern Italy). The fossil, found in allochthonous position within an alluvial bar, shows an overall slenderness and subtlety, different shape of the shaft from lateral view, or less pronounced medial malleolus, corresponding in morphology and dimensions rather with tibiae of modern leopards than with shinbones of larger pantherines or feline cats. The bone is, however, faintly rounded (surface erosion of the edges in particular on the head of the tibia), indicating a limited transport (rafting). Based on that, it is determined as Panthera cf. pardus only. The whole mammalian fossil record from the site consists predominantly of large herbivores (Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus, “Dihoplus” (Stephanorhinus) kirchbergensis, Bison priscus, Megaloceros giganteus, Mammuthus primigenius, Alces alces, Cervus elaphus), whereas carnivores (Ursus arctos, Crocuta crocuta ssp., Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes) are very rare and composed only by a few specimens. The species composition indicates probably a mixing of different faunal assemblages from warm (interglacial) and cold (glacial) periods of the Late Pleistocene.

International audience; Monospecific exploitation of reindeer by Neanderthals is a common behaviour in the Upper Pleistocene of Western Europe. However, reindeer-dominated assemblages have largely been reported from regions of northern Germany and southwestern France, with few examples noted in southeastern France, where faunal assemblages yield most of the time a variety of other large ungulates such as red deer, horse and diverse bovids. Here, we present multi-strand (bio-and eco-) archaeological datasets from the site of Abri du Maras (level 4.1), situated at the mouth of the Ardèche and Rhône rivers, a new example of a reindeer-dominated Neanderthal site in southeastern France. Dated to the beginning of the MIS 3, the zooarchaeological assemblage is dominated by reindeer (88% of the NISP, representing 16 individuals) but also includes horse, bison, giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), red deer, ibex and lagomorphs. The combination of zooarchaeological, cementochronological and tooth microwear analyses evidence a single species-dominated spectrum, with catastrophic mortality and repeated autumnal deaths. This integrated approach provides an extensive picture of human subsistence behaviour, pointing to short-term hunting episodes of reindeer herds in an exceptional context of a quasi-exclusive Neanderthal accumulation. The high number of individuals and selective butchery may correspond with a cooperative and planned mass hunting strategy. The multidisciplinary approach undertaken here also incorporating paleontological, charcoal, ecological and isotopic analyses places the archaeological and zooarchaeological data within a broader regional palaeoenvironmental framework, providing valuable landscape-contextual information. The zooarchaeological data suggest a subsistence behaviour different from other Neanderthal reindeer-dominated assemblages often connected with specialised butchery or hunting sites.

The giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus, is one of the most celebrated of late Quaternary megafaunal species. Here we present new radiocarbon data on the pattern of its extinction, and compare this, on a region-by-region basis, with evidence of environmental change and human occupation. Following strict auditing criteria for the acceptance of radiocarbon dates, 51 dates are published here for the first time, bringing the total number of accepted dates for the species to 134. For western Europe, extirpation around the start of the Younger Dryas stadial is corroborated. Previous early-to mid-Holocene records for the Urals and Siberia are augmented by new dates that together provide an almost continuous radiocarbon record from the late-glacial to the mid-Holocene. Newly-rediscovered skeletal material of giant deer from the Maloarchangelsk region of European Russia has provided the latest date for the species known so far, and extends the mid-Holocene range substantially westward almost to Ukraine. The relatively narrow overall distribution of M. giganteus through its history, and direct palaeoecological evidence, demonstrate the species’ requirement for a mixed, partially open habitat providing both graze and browse. Its extirpation from western Europe remains strongly linked to deterioration of climate and productivity in the Younger Dryas, while its disappearance from more eastern areas correlates chronologically with the spread of closed forest. However, these intervals also coincide with the arrival of (probably sparse) human populations in the regions occupied by giant deer in Ireland and across Russia. The pattern of distributional changes leading to the Holocene restriction of giant deer populations strongly suggests environmental causation, but a contribution of human hunting to the extirpation of terminal populations cannot be ruled out.

The Irish elk or Megaloceros giganteus is an emblematic species of the Pleistocene, but its relatives are much less known and were believed to have gone extinct when the Irish elk dispersed into Europe. The species Megaloceros matritensis n. sp. is described here on the basis of material from ten localities and levels in a terrace of the Manzanares river, South of Madrid. It must have been a common species when it lived there some 300–400 ka ago, being contemporary of M. giganteus. This species acquired features, such as enlarged premolars, very thick molar enamel, and a low mandibular condyle, which are masticatory adaptations to an, as yet, unknown diet. The species itself formed part of the diet of people which lived in the area. Megaloceros matritensis fossils are found associated to stone tools of late Acheulean and early Mousterian type. If found in other areas, this species could be indicative for this transitional period. Giant deer might be expected to be good examples of Cope's rule, which holds that species tend to evolve larger body sizes. However, M. matritensis is the last member of a lineage which gradually decreased in size during the Middle Pleistocene. Contrary to what one might expect, size decrease is not un-common in the giant deer., This paper is a contribution to project CGL20l5 65387-C3-3-P and benefitted from Synthesys DK-TAF-6538.

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.06.007 URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379116302086 Filiació URV: SI Tooth wear analysis techniques (mesowear and microwear) are employed to analyze dietary traits in proboscideans, perissodactyls and artiodactyls from 33 Pleistocene localities in Britain. The objectives of this study are to examine the variability in each taxon, to track dietary shifts through time, and to investigate resource partitioning among species.The integration of mesowear and microwear results first allowed us to examine dietary variability. We identified differences in variability among species, from more stenotopic species such as Capreolus capreolus to more eurytopic species such as Megaloceros giganteus and Cervus elaphus. Broad dietary shifts at the community level are seen between climatic phases, and are the result of species turnover as well as dietary shifts in the more flexible species. The species present at each locality are generally spread over a large part of the dietary spectrum, and resource partitioning was identified at most of these localities. Mixed feeders always coexist with at least one of the two strict dietary groups, grazers or browsers. Finally, for some species, a discrepancy is observed between meso- and microwear signals and may imply that individuals tended to die at a time of year when their normal food was in short supply.

A new deer species, Megaloceros stavropolensis sp. nov., from the pre-Apsheronian sandy–clayey deltaic deposits of the Georgievsk sand pit (village of Podgornoe, Stavropol Region) is described. The fauna of large and small mammals from the bone beds of this locality is dated terminal Villanian, end of the MNQ 17 Zone, beginning of the Late Villafranchian, and assigned to the beginning of the Psekups Mammalian Assemblage. This is the earliest known member of the genus, which possesses antlers with well-developed palmation. The middle tine is absent and the posterior tine is a part of the antler palmation. Other specimens of Early Pleistocene Megaloceros are represented by fragments.

The environmental conditions that existed during the period between 45 and 30 ka are of vital importance for addressing the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. It seems to be a hiatus of Paleolithic populations, a “no (hu)man’s land” in Central Iberia, coinciding with the mid part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, between 42 and 28 cal kyr BP. This break in the archaeological record makes it difficult to address this period paleoecologically. Here we present a new cave site, Portalon del Tejadilla (Segovia), dated to a period roughly between ∼34.2 and 40.4 cal kyr BP in which cold-adapted faunas, such as woolly rhinoceros and giant deer, have been recovered in a hyena den site context. This site is located in Central Iberia, and more specifically, on the southern edge of the northern Plateau, an unexpected region for the presence of these faunas during the MIS 3. These new findings extend the geographical distribution of several species, including Coelodonta antiquitatis and Megaloceros giganteus. Furthermore, they document a climatic deterioration (colder and dryer) during the mid MIS 3 in Central Iberia in one of the coldest and driest episodes of the Late Pleistocene. Portalon del Tejadilla fills this temporal gap and provides valuable paleoecological information about the transition between the Middle to Upper Paleolithic.

Molars of eight large herbivore species (Megaloceros giganteus, Cervus elaphus, Rangifer tarandus, Alces alces, Bison priscus, Ovibos moschatus, Coelodonta antiquitatis and Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis) were collected ex situ from Pleistocene and Holocene sands dredged in the North Sea, and from Dutch inland sites. Folds in many molars contained compacted masticated plant remains, and also microfossils. We identified pollen, spores, and non-pollen palynomorphs and discuss and interpret food preferences, represented flowering seasons, or parts of flowering seasons, and we discuss effects of changing vegetation composition in relation to climate and age of the molars, based on the pollen spectra. Various confounding factors have contributed to the recorded pollen composition, but nevertheless the pollen spectra show valuable aspects of vegetation composition, food choice, age, and landscapes, from subarctic open areas to interglacial forest. Ecological and statistical analysis of the results shows dietary differences between the mammal species analyzed.

Deer are an iconic group of large mammals that originated in the Early Miocene of Eurasia (ca. 19 Ma). While there is some consensus on key relationships among their members, on the basis of molecular- or morphology-based analyses, or combined approaches, many questions remain, and the bony labyrinth has shown considerable potential for the phylogenetics of this and other groups. Here we examine its shape in 29 species of living and fossil deer using 3D geometric morphometrics and cladistics. We clarify several issues of the origin and evolution of cervids. Our results give new age estimates at different nodes of the tree and provide for the first time a clear distinction of stem and crown Cervidae. We unambiguously attribute the fossil Euprox furcatus (13.8 Ma) to crown Cervidae, pushing back the origin of crown deer to (at least) 4 Ma. Furthermore, we show that Capreolinae are more variable in bony labyrinth shape than Cervinae and confirm for the first time the monophyly of the Old World Capreolinae (including the Chinese water deer Hydropotes) based on morphological characters only. Finally, we provide evidence to support the sister group relationship of Megaloceros giganteus with the fallow deer Dama.

Eight anatomically and taxonomically different finds are presented in this paper, and they belong to four taxa: woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), and dog (Canis familiaris). All specimens represent allochthonous Late Pleistocene and Holocene animal remains, and all were dredged during the gravel exploitation at the Sekuline site near Molve (Podravina region, SW Pannonian basin, NE Croatia). Mammoth remains (bone and tusk fragments) were radiocarbon dated, and these are the first absolute dates on mammoths in Croatia. One upper last left deciduous premolar (dP4 sin.) also belongs to the same species. Ascribed to a dog is one well-preserved skull with a peculiar abscess scar on the maxillary bone as the result of an inflammatory process on the carnassial (P4) premolar. The Late Pleistocene cervid remains are giant deer, while the other cervid finds were determined to be red deer of the Holocene age. Morphometrical and taphonomical data are presented for each specimen. Such fossil and recent bone/tooth aggregates are characteristic of fluvial deposits and selective collecting. Although lacking stratigraphic provenance, these finds help to fulfil the gaps in palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological, and palaeoclimate reconstructions of Podravina and its neighbouring areas.

The Geosciences Collection of the University of Bremen is a mid-size collection of estimated about 800,000 specimens that are housed at the Faculty of Geosciences of the University of Bremen. It is focused on the field of research in paleontology. The collections include more than 500,000 individual fossils, most of these are ammonoids, a focus that is flanked by the mollusk focus of the neontological collection comprising many type specimens. The ammonoid focus is developed fairly recently as well as a very comprising research collection on the Lower Cretaceous (lower Aptian) of North Germany. The research focus of the collection is furthermore underlined by various new collections mainly from the Cretaceous of England, France, North Africa, North America and Tibet. Nevertheless the collection includes important historical material. Examples are the type of the Baltic amber tick Ixodes succineus, a topotype of the largest ammonoid species recorded, Parapuzosia seppenradensis from the late Cretaceous of North Germany, and a complete skeleton of a giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus, from the late Pleistocene of Ireland. Technically, the material and the collection are in an excellent condition today and thus precondition for the further scientific development is very well. The collection is also housing an established working-group of the geoscientific department of the university intensively incorporating student education. A long-lasting preservation and curation is ensured by a contract between the Ubersee-Museum, the institution formerly holding these city-owned collections, and the University of Bremen. As a consequence the collection has a good staffing today. Permanent positions include one technical assistant and one scientist handling collection affairs. The lively exhibition projects comprise exceptional exhibits on inland water vessel and shopping centers, with a conceptional focus to present aspects of evolution, diversity and constructional morphology.

Bogland is a preeminent motif in Irish literature, art, and environmental science. In the late seventeenth century, the doctor and antiquarian Thomas Molyneux attempted to account for the plentiful, bog-borne bones and antlers of the extinct quadruped we now recognize as the giant deer, or Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus). Molyneux's "A Discourse Concerning the Large Horns Frequently Found under Ground in Ireland," published in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions in 1695, claimed that the creature was a moose, and that it helped prove a "sort of Intercourse" between prehistoric Ireland and the New World. At the very moment that Anglo-Irish natural history established itself in relation to British and European networks – Molyneux had helped found the Dublin Philosophical Society in 1683 – the "Irish Moose Deer" seemed to disaffiliate Ireland from those networks, and from the Old World in general. Molyneux's specimens bear the imprint of the new science, inspired by the Royal Society and the Philosophical Society at Oxford, but come to represent Irish exceptionalism, as well as Irish membership in some kind of New World "Neighbourhood." The "Discourse" testifies, at once, to scientific literature's power to imagine Ireland as rationalized and improved by Protestant empiricism, and to bogs' epistemological undecidability. New formations, neither Old World nor New, neither English, nor Irish, nor Anglo-Irish, issue from Molyneux's bogs, prefiguring the narrative possibilities of bogland for writers later in the eighteenth century, and beyond.

Courtship behaviours, frequent among modern insects, have left extremely rare fossil traces. None are known previously for fossil odonatans. Fossil traces of such behaviours are better known among the vertebrates, e.g. the hypertelic antlers of the Pleistocene giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. Here we describe spectacular extremely expanded, pod-like tibiae in males of a platycnemidid damselfly from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Such structures in modern damselflies, help to fend off other suitors as well as attract mating females, increasing the chances of successful mating. Modern Platycnemidinae and Chlorocyphidae convergently acquired similar but less developed structures. The new findings provide suggestive evidence of damselfly courtship behaviour as far back as the mid-Cretaceous. These data show an unexpected morphological disparity in dancing damselfly leg structure, and shed new light on mechanisms of sexual selection involving intra- and intersex reproductive competition during the Cretaceous.

Discovered in 2010 with the construction of Landscape Park on the left bank of Wulanmulun River in Kangbashi District of Nei Mongol, Wulanmulun Paleolithic Site yielded large quantities of mammalian specimens during 2010–2012 rescue excavations. Identified fossil materials include Myospalax sp., Cricetulus sp., Microtus sp., Apodemus sp., Arvicola sp.?, Dipodidae gen. et sp. indet., Lepus sp., Mustelidae gen. et sp. indet., Coelodonta antiquitatis , Equus przewalskii , Camelus cf. C. knoblochi Megaloceros ordosianus and Gazella sp. The fauna analyses show that the paleoenvironment in Wulanmulun Site area might have been a mixture or mosaic of grassland and forest with some small streams and swamps. The fluctuation of annual temperature might have been high, with the winter very cold and the summer relatively warm. The Wulanmulun fauna is in the same paleozoogeographic sub-province as Baotou, Shiyu, Salawusu and Loufangzi faunas, different from that of the Xiaogushan and Yanjiagang faunas of Northeast China, and more different from that of the Dantu fauna of East China. The Wulanmulun area was suitable for the habitation of the late Paleolithic humans, and Wulanmulun fauna were their main hunting prey.

An almost complete skeleton of the giant deer Megaloceros giganteus giganteus (Blumenbach, 1803) from the Dzhambul locality on the Irtysh River (Pavlodar Region, Kazakhstan) is described. About 80% of bones are intact, including the skull with well-preserved antlers. At present, the skeleton is mounted in the Pavlodar Local History Regional Museum. Comparative analysis of giant deer skulls varying in age from the southeastern West Siberian Plain has revealed stable characters distinguishing Middle and Late Neopleistocene specimens. These characteristics are considered to be of subspecies rank, allowing the identification of Megaloceros giganteus ruffi Nehring and Megaloceros giganteus giganteus (Blumenbach.) Changes in absolute and relative dimensions of the dentition and facial skull length are most indicative with reference to evolution.

The recently discovered Janda cavity yielded the first large mammal fossil assemblage of the Late Pleistocene age in the southeast Pannonian lowland (Vojvodina), outside the karst region of Serbia. The cavity is formed in the Badenian reef limestone on the northern hillside of the Fruska Gora mountain. The paper provides a paleontological description and taphonomic data on mammal remains collected from the loose sediments or scree. Herbivores are represented by Bison priscus (Bojanus, 1827), which is the most abundant species, followed by Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1803) and Equus germanicus Nehring, 1884, with several remains of Mammuthus sp. and Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799). Carnivores are represented by Ursus spelaeus ingressus ( Rabeder et al., 2004 ), Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823), Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810), as well as Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758. Wolf remains are characterized by their large size, almost reaching the size of hyenas, which is in contrast with the finds of rather small Pleistocene wolves from the caves in the mountainous part of Serbia. The faunal composition and the presence of mostly grazing forms among the herbivores indicate glacial conditions and an open landscape in the surroundings of the site during the formation of the Janda cavity infill. Taphonomic observations indicate the cave hyena as a dominant bone accumulating agent. In contrast to other cave hyena sites in Serbia, where mostly small and medium sized prey remains were accumulated, prey preference for large and extra large mammals is noted. It is supposed that this is the consequence of the differences between mountainous and lowland landscapes and environments, climatic conditions, different composition of animal and plant associations, and also in different modes of competitions between predators.

Resume Au moyen d’une analyse stylistique (prenant en compte les dimensions, les conventions graphiques, la transcription des details, le degre d’achevement des figures et le bestiaire d’accompagnement du megaceros) et en reference aux differents styles qui se succedent au cours du temps comme etablis par Leroi-Gourhan, il devient possible de realiser une etude comparative de quarante-neuf representations de megaceros recensees dans l’ensemble de l’art des grottes ornees du Paleolithique superieur. Le constat permet d’etablir la presence chronologique du cervide geant seulement a partir du Gravettien sur les parois des grottes en Espagne et en France avec une progression vers le naturalisme de sa facture au final du Solutreen a la transition avec le Magdalenien initial. Contrairement a l’opinion communement admise jusqu’a present, le rendu des figures oscillerait, selon les partisans « d’une ere post-stylistique », d’un dessin abouti, bien qu’encore inacheve a l’Aurignacien, a une illustration plus sommaire au Gravettien, pour retrouver la qualite initiale au Solutreo-Magdalenien (7000 a 12 000 ans plus tard) en retracant des representations pratiquement a l’identique. Il s’agirait la d’un unicum dans la prehistoire de l’art qui le rend peu plausible, tant il contreviendrait a toutes nos connaissances a son sujet.

The article describes morphology and chronological distribution of late Middle – Late Pleistocene fossil remains of giant deer Megaloceros giganteus from the area adjoining the northern and eastern foothills of the Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains and some other regions of Eastern Europe. At list two forms of giant deer are reported from the Late Pleistocene of Eastern Europe. The morphological study of the comparatively small sized M. giganteus from Biśnik Cave (Poland) revealed some archaic cranial and dental characters. Another Late Pleistocene form of giant deer from Eastern Europe is characterized by larger size, moderately short limbs, and relatively long premolar series. The described forms of giant deer differ from a larger long-limbed type of giant deer with short premolar series from Sapozhok (Russia) and some other sites of Eastern Europe. Possible taphonomic biases in morphological study of giant deer from Eastern Europe are also discussed.

In this paper, the evolution of wolves and deer is presented as expressed in changes in size and proportions in molars, metapodials and phalanges, which are well represented in the fossil record. This has two advantages: firstly, samples are often large, and secondly this is a taxon-free approach, focussing on the data, rather than presenting the lineages in the form of sequences of names of chrono species or subspecies. This allows more precise documentation of the changes. Occasionally rapid evolutionary changes are found, which mark a time slice and which have biochronologic value. Several canid and deer lineages were studied previously in this way, while others are presented for the first time here, and Polish material is incorporated in all. In some cases, the Polish material helps to improve the timing of the evolutionary events, while in others, the existing information is used to confirm or improve the dating of Polish localities.

The largest antlers of any known deer species belonged to the extinct giant deerMegaloceros giganteus. It has been argued that their antlers were too large for use in fighting, instead being used only in ritualized displays to attract mates. Here, we used finite-element analysis to test whether the antlers ofM. giganteuscould have withstood forces generated during fighting. We compared the mechanical performance of antlers inM. giganteuswith three extant deer species: red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama) and elk (Alces alces). Von Mises stress results suggest thatM. giganteuswas capable of withstanding some fighting loads, provided that their antlers interlocked proximally, and that their antlers were best adapted for withstanding loads from twisting rather than pushing actions, as are other deer with palmate antlers. We conclude that fighting inM. giganteuswas probably more constrained and predictable than in extant deer.