Capreolinae Temporal range: Middle Miocene to present | |
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Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Cervidae |
Subfamily: | Capreolinae Brookes, 1828 |
Genera | |
Synonyms | |
Odocoileinae |
The Capreolinae, Odocoileinae, or the New World deer are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the telemetacarpal deer, due to their bone structure being different from the plesiometacarpal deer subfamily Cervinae. The telemetacarpal deer maintain their distal lateral metacarpals, while the plesiometacarpal deer maintain only their proximal lateral metacarpals. [1] The Capreolinae are believed to have originated in the Middle Miocene, between 7.7 and 11.5 million years ago, in Central Asia. [2]
Although this subfamily is called New World deer in English, it includes reindeer, moose, and roe deer, all of which live in Eurasia in the Old World.
The following extant genera and species are recognized: [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
A deer or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae. Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae and Capreolinae. Male deer of almost all species, as well as female reindeer, grow and shed new antlers each year. These antlers are bony extensions of the skull and are often used for combat between males.
The roe deer, also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east as far as northern Iran.
Megaloceros is an extinct genus of deer whose members lived throughout Eurasia from the Pleistocene to the early Holocene. The type and only undisputed member of the genus, Megaloceros giganteus, vernacularly known as the "Irish elk" or "giant deer", is also the best known. Fallow deer are thought to be their closest living relatives. Megaloceros has been suggested to be closely related to other genera of "giant deer", like the East Asian genus Sinomegaceros, and the European Praemegaceros.
Capreolus is a genus of deer, the roe deer.
Brockets or brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian muntjacs, but only distantly related. About 10 species of brocket deer are described.
The red brocket is a species of brocket deer from forests in South America, ranging from northern Argentina to Colombia and the Guianas. It also occurs on the Caribbean island of Trinidad.
The gray brocket, also known as the brown brocket, is a species of brocket deer from northern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Peru, eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It formerly included the Amazonian brown brocket and sometimes also the Yucatan brown brocket as subspecies. Unlike other species of brocket deer in its range, the gray brocket has a gray-brown fur without reddish tones.
The Cervinae or the Old World deer, are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the plesiometacarpal deer, due to having lost the parts of the second and fifth metacarpal bones closest to the foot, distinct from the telemetacarpal deer of the Capreolinae.
The Yucatan brown brocket is a small species of deer native to Central America.
Six species of deer are living wild in Great Britain: Scottish red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, sika deer, Reeves's muntjac, and Chinese water deer. Of those, Scottish red and roe deer are native and have lived in the isles throughout the Holocene. Fallow deer have been reintroduced twice, by the Romans and the Normans, after dying out in the last ice age. The other three are escaped or released alien species. Moose were also formerly native to Britain, before dying out during the mid-Holocene, over 5,000 years ago. The comparably sized Irish elk, which had the largest antlers of any deer was formerly also native to Britain, until becoming regionally extinct some 12,000 years ago.
The small red brocket is a small species of brocket deer in the family Cervidae. It is endemic to Atlantic Forest in Paraná, Santa Catarina and São Paulo in southeastern Brazil. This species, which only was scientifically described in 1996, is threatened by habitat loss. Though its size and structure most resemble that of the pygmy brocket, its coloration is very similar to that of the red brocket. It resembles hybrids between these two species even more closely, but differs from both, and their hybrids, in karyotype.
Odocoileus lucasi, known commonly as the American mountain deer, is an extinct species of North American deer.
The Central American red brocket is a species of brocket deer ranging from southern Mexico, through Central America, to northwestern Colombia.
The Amazonian brown brocket, also known as the small brown brocket, is a small species of deer that is almost entirely restricted to South America.