Fossil record of sika deer in japan

Abstract

Diagnoses for antlers of The sika deer is now presented to distinguish it from other medium-sized deer species based on observation of numerous fos sil and living deer antlers from Japan and the adjacent Asian continent as well as examination of published data on the antlers. Well-dated records of fossil antlers from 16 localities were selected from numerous fossil records hitherto known in Japan as reliable occurrences of C. nippon. All the selected localities were situ ated in the Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu complex constituting the main part of Japan. Morphological discussions and chronological comments are briefly given for the fossil antlers from these localities. A revision was also made to records of fossil antlers of the medium-sized deer from the adjacent continent which are prob ably conspecific to C. nippon. The records of C. nippon from the 16 localities are arranged in a chronological framework, which includes climatic records during the Quaternary, to reconstruct the history of C. nippon. C. nippon is inferred to have migrated from China into Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu through the short-lived land bridge formed in and around the present-day Korea Strait at MIS 12 (about 0.43 Ma) and then to have inhabited Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu for a long time in association with Cervus kazusensis, a survivor of the medium-sized deer from the Early Pleistocene fauna. After the extinction of C. kazusensis at the terminal stage of the Late Pleistocene, C. nippon became the only medium-sized deer species in Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu and has survived until the present day.