Candiacervus major (Capasso Barbato & Petronio, 1986)

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Cervus major

This may be an invalid species. The type specimens represent an individual suffering from pituitary gigantism, which has resulted in abnormal osteological proportions (Palombo & Zedda, 2021).

Conservation Status

Extinct or invalid

Last record: Late Pleistocene

Distribution

Crete

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Capasso Barbato, L. and Petronio, C. (1986). Cervus major n. sp. of Bate Cave (Rethymnon, Crete). Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Memorie, classe di Scienze fisischi, matematische e naturali (Serie 8, 2a), 18: 59-100.

Other references:

Alcover, Josep Antoni et al. (1998). Mammal Species of the World: Additional Data on Insular Mammals. American Museum Novitates 3248, 29 pp., 1 table.

Besiou, Eva, Choupa, Maria Nefeli, Lyras, George, and van der Geer, Alexandra. (2022). Body mass divergence in sympatric deer species of Pleistocene Crete (Greece). Palaeontologia Electronica 25(2): a23. https://doi.org/10.26879/1221

Palombo, Maria Rita and Zedda, Marco. (Accepted, 2021). The intriguing giant deer from the Bate cave (Crete): could palaeohistological evidence question its taxonomy and nomenclature? Integrative Zoology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12533

Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). In the shadow of the megafauna: prehistoric mammal and bird extinctions across the Holocene, pp. 17-39. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. New York: Oxford University Press.

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