Cervid fossils from Bailong Cave (Yunxi, Hubei) indicating a turnover on deer fauna around Mid-Pleistocene Transition in southern China

ABSTRACT

Bailong Cave (Bailongdong), dating back to the Middle Pleistocene, is a very important Palaeolithic site in southern China with some hominin remains and substantial mammalian fossils unearthed. Cervid fossils are one of the most common elements in this site, and antler fossils from Bailong Cave were preserved in a better condition than any other Pleistocene site in southern China. Here, we describe the materials of Elaphodus cephalophus, Muntiacus reevesi, Muntiacus muntjak, Cervavitus ultimus and Cervus grayi, while the remains of Rusa unicolor have been described separately in previous paper. The antler fossil of E. cephalophus represents the earliest and undisputed record of this species known currently. The fossils of C. ultimus represent the latest occurrence of this species according to the current knowledge. Overviewing the geological distribution of Quaternary cervids based on 19 sites in southern China, we can find that there was a significant turnover on deer fauna around Mid-Pleistocene Transition in southern China.

KEYWORDS:

• Bailong Cave
• tufted deer
• pliocervines
• climate change
• Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the following people for their help: Wu Liu, Chunhua Xu and Shengming Qu for providing the help for observing cervid fossils of Bailong Cave; Dongsheng Li of IVPP, Xichao Zhu and Yang Yang of IOZ for providing the help for observing extant cervid specimens. This work was supported by the following grants: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41572003; 42172021); the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB26000000); special financial support of the Beijing Government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2102913

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 41572003, Grant No. 42172021]; Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant No. XDB26000000].