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A Fossil Deer from Argentina 



WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS TYPES 

 OF DEER IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 



Slrletoii ill the American Museum of an extinct species of deer 

 from the Pampean formation of Argentina 



Bv W. D. MAT THE W 



AMONG the gems of the Cope Pam- 

 pean Collection is a nearly complete 

 ^ skeleton of the fossil deer, Cervus 

 (Blastocerus) pampceus. It was found in the 

 Pampean formation near Buenos Aires by 

 Florentine Ameghino nearly forty years ago, 

 and was among the many buried treasures 

 found among Professor Cope 's collections. 

 This handsome deer was a contemporary of 

 the various strange extinct types of the Pam- 

 pean fauna of Pleistocene age, of the great 

 ground sloths, toxodonts and Macrauchenia, 

 but it is a close relative of the living pam- 

 pas deer Blastocerus hesoarticus, and in- 

 deed is barely to be distinguished from it. 

 Like the pampas deer, the antlers are three- 

 tined in the full-grown buck, and have 

 neither ' ' brow tine ' ' nor ' ' sub-basal snag. ' ' 

 This skeleton is probably unique. At all 

 events I haA'e not seen any description or 



reference to a fossil deer skeleton from the 

 Pampean in all the published memoirs and 

 minor articles dealing with this remarkable 

 fauna. Various deer remains have been de- 

 scribed and figured, but all of them frag- 

 mentary — antlers, jaws, and the like, mostly 

 of rather doubtful status. The species Cer- 

 vus pampceus was originally named by Bra- 

 vard, apparently from fragmentary mate- 

 rial, but this skeleton has remained unknown 

 to science. 



The specimen was mounted in 1915 by Mr. 

 A. Hermann, using, as a guide to form and 

 pose, the photograph of a modern i:>ampas 

 deer published by Lydekker in Deer of All 

 Lands. The skull had been rather crudely 

 restored, probably at the Paris Museum for 

 the Exposition Universelle in 1878, but many 

 small fragments and the more delicate parts 

 of the skull had been left unrecognized 



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