Praemegaceros
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Praemegaceros Temporal range: Early to Holocene |
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| Skull of P. obscurus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Genus: |
†Praemegaceros Portis, 1920 |
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Praemegaceros is an extinct genus of deer. It also contains the subgenera Orthogonoceros and Nesoleipoceros. It has sometimes been synonymised with Megaloceros, however they have been found to have been genetically distinct.
P. obscurus is the earliest known species from the Early Pleistocene of Europe, and had long, crooked antlers. P. verticornis is an Early to Mid-Pleistocene species, closely related to P. obscurus, which lived throughout Southern Europe.Praemegaceros fossils has been discovered in France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia Spain, Syria, and Tajikistan.
P. cazioti survived into the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, in isolation in Sardinia until human colonisation in 5500 BCE.
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