A Pleistocene Fight Club revealed by the palaeobiological study of the Dama-like deer record from Pantalla (Italy)

Abstract

Here, we report on the exceptionally well-preserved deer record from the locality of Pantalla (central Italy), dated in the Early Pleistocene (ca. 2.1–2.0 million years ago). The fossils show a combination of characters that allows an unambiguous attribution to ‘Pseudodama’ nestii, of which they represent one of the most informative collections to date. Our comparisons—also conducted through CT-based methods on endocranial structures—reveal that the cranial and postcranial skeleton of ‘P.’ nestii displays a mosaic of intermediate characters between extant Dama and Cervus, but also that the affinities with Dama are prevalent. Some Cervus-like features especially in cranial morphology, can be interpreted as plesiomorphic characters supporting a basal position of ‘Pseudodama’ among the Cervini. Interestingly, three bone anomalies are described in the two male crania of ‘P.’ nestii from Pantalla and are interpreted as palaeotraumatological evidence resulting from different injuries suffered by the deer during their life. This allows opening a treasure trove of information on paleobiological aspects, including ontogeny and antler cycle and function.

Carnivora From the Early Pleistocene of Grăunceanu (Olteţ River Valley, Dacian Basin, Romania)

“…The last mentioned of these sites may, like Senèze, be approximately coeval with Grăunceanu but span slightly more time. Another site of interest in this time span is Pantalla, Italy (Cherin et al 2017(Cherin et al , 2022, which is the only site among the ones listed here that shares the presence of Lutraeximia with Grăunceanu. However, only five species of Carnivora are known from Pantalla and it is therefore not included in the analysis.…”

The Occurrence of Suids in the Post-Olduvai to Pre-Jaramillo Pleistocene of Europe and Implications for Late Villafranchian Biochronology and Faunal Dynamics

“…For the second time span, the fauna of Monte Peglia is not considered, as only two artiodactyl species were listed by Palombo [3] and both records were tentative. I also excluded Redicicoli and the Early Pleistocene layers of Vallparadís, which could be correlated with the following Slivia FU [46,59]. Likewise, I omitted all the faunas from the different layers of Gran Dolina, which were argued to be likely younger than previously assumed, considering the occurrence of Galerian newcomers [45], as eventually confirmed by new paleomagnetic investigations [60,61].…”

“…Moreover, as will be stressed in this work, biochronological correlations for the 1.8-1.2 Ma time span in Europe are biased by the heterogeneous distribution of fossiliferous deposits. This is especially relevant when considering Peyrolles, as the biochronological placement of the site has been based on cervids, especially "Cervus" perolensis [34,44], for which different lineages in France and Italy are customarily recognized against the background of a myriad of divergent taxonomic proposals (e.g., [46]).…”