14 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



Man, which closely resemble those of Ireland. The nature and age of these deposits 

 are exhaustively discussed by Lamplugh (108), and the conclusion is reached that 

 Megaceros must be regarded as " either a late glacial or early post-glacial inhabitant 

 according to the limits, in any case arbitrary, which we may assign to the Glacial period." 

 With regard to the Irish deposits, Williams has suggested that the Megaceros marls 

 were accumulated during a mild and genial interlude which followed the main melting 

 of the ice, and was succeeded by a return of glacial conditions. J. Geikie was inclined 

 to accept the view that the Megaceros beds are of interglacial age, and Lamplugh 

 says : "It would be rash to deny the possibility of the Megaceros marl being the 

 product of a genial interval between two cold periods." It may be doubted whether 

 even in Ireland it survived the increased cold of Magdalenian times. 1 



IV. ORIGIN, RACES AND AFFINITIES OF THE GIANT DEER. 



Though there is little evidence available, it is possible that the Giant Deer was not 

 of European but of Siberian origin, and that it migrated westward under the influence 

 of the increasing cold, of which the later Pliocene beds afford proof. On the other 

 hand, Pohlig (89) derives Megaceros from Cervus dicranius, a small Upper Tertiary 

 form with a wide distribution in the Mediterranean region. 



The earliest fossils attributed to the race of the Giant Deer are the fragmentary 

 antlers described by Owen (37) and by Dawkins from the Red Crag of Suffolk. It 

 may be doubted whether the former specimen is sufficiently well preserved to justify 

 any definite conclusions concerning it. Soergel agrees with Dawkins in attributing 

 the latter specimen to Cervus verticornis. 



Various authors have described the several " races " into which it is possible to 

 divide the Giant Deer, one of the most comprehensive accounts being that of Lydekker 

 (100), who recognized five races, the German, Irish, Italian, French and Forest Bed 

 races. 



The earliest race is that of the Forest Bed, to which such forms as Cervus verti- 

 cornis are referable. The antlers are short, directed upwards and outwards, with 

 palmation generally slight and a simple brow tine. Some of the early forms described 

 from Italy, such as the simple antlers with short tines described by Alessandri from 

 Monteferrato, seem to belong, as Soergel suggests (130), to an animal closely allied to 

 C. verticornis. 



C. dawkinsi from the Forest Bed, which is commonly grouped with C. verticornis, 

 has a more expanded palm, and is perhaps, as Soergel suggests, more closely related 

 to Alces than to Megaceros. 



1 Since writing this sentence I have been shown the as yet unpublished script of a paper by 

 Dr. J. W. Jackson on the animal remains of the Kilgreanv Cave, Watcrford, iu which he writes : 

 "With regard to the giant Irish deer, there appears to be good evidence that it did not long survive, 

 if at all, the last cold phase, which is generally regarded as of early Magdalenian date." 



