Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 34.djvu/501

Rh however, much smaller, and possesses a brow-tyne which rises at a distance from the base and at acute angles to the beam, and is different in other respects. From the comparison I should infer that the antler of Cervus tetraceros was curved forwards, and that the tynes were erect.

We may gather from the study of the fossil Cervidæ the important fact that in the Middle Miocene age the Cervine antler consisted of a simple forked crown only. In the Upper Miocenes it becomes more complex, but is still small and erect, like that of the Roe. In the Pliocene it becomes larger and longer, and altogether more complex and differentiated, some forms, such as the Cervus dicranios of Nesti, being the most complicated antlers known either in the living or fossil state. These successive changes are analogous to those which are to be observed in the development of the antlers in the living Deer, which begin with a simple point and increase their number of tynes until their limit be reached. It is obvious from the progressive diminution in size and complexity of the antlers in tracing them back from the Pliocenes into the Upper and Middle Miocenes of Europe, that in the latter period we are approaching the zero of antler development. In the Lower Miocenes I have failed to meet with evidence that the Deer possessed any antlers.

It is further evident from the preceding remarks that the Capreoline type of antler is older than any other.

It is also a point of singular interest to observe that the nearest living analogue of the Miocene Deer is the Muntjak, now found only in the Oriental region of Asia along with the tapir. Cervus dicranoceros also coexisted with that animal in the Upper Miocene forests of Germany.

With one exception all the Pliocene Deer which can be brought into relation with living forms are closely allied to the Axes, Rusæ, or others, which also are dwellers in the Oriental Region. They belong to a fauna now met with only in the forests of India, China, Japan, and the Malay archipelago. The exception is the Cervus cusanus, which possessed an antler not very far removed from that of the Roe, an animal now so widely spread over Europe and Northern and Central Asia. I should infer from this that the Oriental Region has offered a secure place of refuge to the Axeidæ, so abundant in the Pliocenes of France and Italy, from those changes in their environment which compelled them to retreat from Europe. The fact of the presence in this quarter of the world of a group of animals now met with only in warm regions, confirms the conclusions as to the warm climate of Pliocene Europe which M. le Vicomte de Saporta has recently arrived at from a study of the vegetation.