THE GIANT DEER. 



15 



Another early form is that described by Stehlin (125) as Cervus (Megaceros) clupuisi 

 from the Pleistocene of Rosieres, near St. Florent. This was a relatively small animal, 

 about as large as a Red Deer, but it resembles Megaceros in the fact that a cross-section 

 of the mandible is wide and rounded below, while that of the Red Deer is deeper, 

 narrower and more pointed below. A related form, Cervus pachygenys (Pomel), is 

 considered by Stehlin to be more primitive than C. dwpuisi in respect of the small size 

 of the antlers, while as regards the depression of the antlers and the length of the 

 molars it seems to be more highly specialized than C. dwpuisi. Joleaud (126) has 

 also described C. pachygenys, which he considers identical with Lydekker's C. algericus, 

 and agrees as to some of its characters being archaic and others highly specialized. 

 He suggests that it and Megaceros may have had a common ancestor, and regards it 

 as worthy of subgeneric distinction under the name of Megaceroides. 



Fig. 2. — Fragmentary skull and antlers of a young individual from co. Limerick (no. 17 Nat. Mus., Dublin). Both 

 antlers are broken ; the right one retains the brow tine which springs at the very base of the antler and already shows 

 flattening. The left antler retains the 2nd tine. The most interesting features shown are the conspicuous pedicels 

 from which the antlers spring. In old animals the antlers spring directly from the skull-wall. 



Many important occurrences of the Giant Deer have been recorded from the 

 interglacial and other deposits of the Rhine Valley and from Northern and Central 

 Germany, which show that Megaceros had a wide distribution prior to the last great 

 advance of the ice. It occurs associated with Machcerodus, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros 

 merckii and Elephas antiguus as a member of the warm Chellean fauna, and is found 

 also in Mousterian and Aurignacian deposits. 



The German examples, which are seen in nearly all the Rhineland museums, 

 have been described by Nehring, Pohlig, Soergel, Frentzen and Speyer and others, 

 and there has been difference of opinion as to how they should be grouped and as to 

 the systematic rank of the divisions adopted. Pohlig has grouped all the German 

 examples together as Cervus (Euryceros) germanice, which he considers worthy of 

 specific distinction from C. hibernicus. The chief distinguishing features of C. ger- 

 manice are: (1) the antlers are smaller, have a narrower palm, and are more upwardly 

 directed than in C. hibernicus, and consequently have a smaller span ; (2) the tines 



