Cervids

The phylogenetic pattern and timing of the radiation of Old World deer was determined based on the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene from 33 Cervinae taxa. Using rooted and unrooted phylogenies derived from distinct theoretical approaches, strong support was achieved for monophyly of the Old World deer with muntjacs as sister group as well as for the divergence of at least three distinct genera: Rucervus, Dama, and Cervus. The latter clade comprises what have previously been regarded as the genera or subgenera Panolia, Rusa, Cervus, Sika, and probably Przewalskium. Our data also consistently confirmed paraphyly of nominate C. elaphus and did not support the monophyly of Axis. We used these molecular phylogenies to assess the homoplastic evolution of morphological, geographical, ecological, and selected behavioural character state differences within the Cervinae. Reliable fossil calibrations, large molecular data sets, and improved dating methods are shaping a molecular time scale for the evolutionary radiation of Old World deer that occurred at the Miocene/Pliocene transition and is largely compatible with existing palaeontological evidence. Using node ages estimated from sequence data, we estimated an average per-lineage diversification rate of 0.51 ± 0.1 species per million years (my) over roughly the last 6 mya.

Goal: This project aims to contribute to academic research on archaeological cervid remains, by providing a tool to separate red deer, fallow deer, and roe deer bones. The method relies on the collection of biometrical data from modern specimens of known species (and, where possible, sex and age), to identify size and shape indices which can better separate red deer from fallow deer values, and fallow deer from roe deer values; in turn, values from archaeological cervid remains can be plotted to attempt identification. The measurements chosen will include standard ones as well as new measurements created to translate biometrically morphological diagnostic features identified by previous studies (Di Stefano 1995; Lister 1996). Preliminary analyses of the data so far collected from the Sheffield and Historic England zooarchaeology reference collections provided promising results.
An important advantage is represented by the combination of size and shape indices analyses. Red deer is larger than fallow deer, and this latter is larger than roe deer. The body size of these two species changed through time according to a range of environmental and anthropogenic variables, and nowadays substantial geographical size differences persist throughout Europe. Size overlaps are enhanced by sexual dimorphism. For these reasons, size alone cannot be used to separate red deer from fallow deer remains; however, it can be used to enhance the separation provided by shape indices.
The development of a biometrical method to separate red deer, fallow deer, and roe deer remains would rely on more objective separation criteria than morphological approaches; the method would also produce graphs which can be directly scrutinised to assess the validity of separation. Alternative identification methods, such as aDNA analyses, can be very effective but are constrained by severe cost limitations and are destructive; ZooMS provides a cheaper alternative, but the peptide mass fingerprints of these species are too similar to attempt separation. Further advantages provided by a biometrical approach, therefore, are ultimately reflected by the low-tech nature of the method, which makes it easy to apply in any circumstances and extremely accessible and inclusive.

Skulls of large cervids still wearing their antler in growth and shaped into cranial bone rings have newly been
identified at Tivoli-4.1 (Place Saint-Lambert, Belgium). The technological analysis that includes experimental test on the
replication of the bone deer ring-frontlets shows here that these have eventually been used as objects or “trophies” left in
situ. In the frame of this study, several similar pieces have been identified from other north-European sites, all yielded from
Mesolithic contexts. Since they refer then to various human cultural groups, and that the concerned sites are eventually
located on the border zone regions of the most northern territorial Neolithic primary expansion, these objects might actually
refer to a materialized symbolism developed by Mesolithic hunters to face the Neolithization process.

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) is a flexible species that survived the significant climatic and environmental change toward warming temperature and forested landscape of the Late-glacial to early Holocene transition (ca. 17–6 ka cal BP). To investigate the conditions of ethological adaptation of red deer at that time, isotopic analysis of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur in collagen (δ13Ccoll, δ15Ncoll, δ34Scoll) and of oxygen in phosphate (δ18Op) were performed on red deer from archaeological sites of the French Jura and the western Alps. Fifty out of eighty two samples benefited from direct AMS radiocarbon dating, which confirmed the few number of red deer record during the cold Younger Dryas oscillation (ca. 12.8–11.6 ka cal BP) in Western Europe. The French Jura red deer showed a significant decrease in their δ13Ccoll values and increase in their δ15Ncoll values in the early Holocene compared to the Late-glacial, which is most likely due to the change in environment from open areas with low pedogenic activity to warm dense forests with increasing soil maturity. In contrast, the stable δ13Ccoll and δ15Ncoll values over time in the western Alps were thought to indicate a change to higher altitude for the red deer habitat in this mountainous region. A decrease of the δ18Op values between the Late-glacial and the early Holocene was observed in the western Alps red deer, in contrast to the expected increase with rising temperature which was indeed confirmed for the French Jura red deer. The multi-isotope results pointed to open areas home range at higher altitude for the Alps red deer in the Holocene compared to the previous period. The similarity of the δ34Scoll patterns with those of the δ15Ncoll suggested the primarily influence of soil activity on the 34S abundances recorded by red deer in a purely terrestrial context. Red deer of the French Jura on one hand and of the western Alps on the other hand showed different adaptive response to the global warming of the early Holocene, with an ethological change in the first case and a change in home range in the second case.