A New Species of Fallow Deer Dama pontica sp. nov. (Artiodactyla, Cervidae) from the Lower Pleistocene of Taurida Cave in the Crimea and the Early History of the Genus Dama
Journal: Paleontological Journal
Year: 2024

A new species of fallow deer Dama pontica is described from the late Early Pleistocene of Taurida Cave in the Crimea. The antlers of this medium-sized deer had a small first tine near the burr and a primitively narrow proximal fan-shaped palmation. The morphology of D. pontica sp. nov. suggests that this species belongs to a phylogenetic branch of the modern Mesopotamian (Persian, or Iranian) fallow deer, D. mesopotamica (Brooke, 1875). The fossil remains of Dama from the Taurida Cave are the ol