Odocoileus

Odocoileus Temporal range: Pleistocene to present
Odocoileus virginianus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Capreolinae
Tribe:	Odocoileini
Genus:	Odocoileus Rafinesque, 1832 [1]
Type species
Odocoileus speleus [1] Rafinesque, 1832
Species
Odocoileus hemionus Odocoileus pandora Odocoileus virginianus † Odocoileus lucasi † Odocoileus salinae [2]

Odocoileus is a genus of medium-sized deer (family Cervidae) containing three species native to the Americas. ^{[1] [3] [4]} The name, sometimes spelled odocoeleus, is a contraction of the Greek root odont- ^{[5] [6]} , meaning "tooth," and -coelus, New Latin for "hollow".

Extant species

	Odocoileus hemionus	Mule deer	western half of North America.
	Odocoileus pandora	Yucatan brown brocket	Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize)
	Odocoileus virginianus	White-tailed deer	throughout most of the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America, and northern portions of South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. [7]

History

The genus Odocoileus was named by French zoologist, Constantine S. Rafinesque, in 1832, based on teeth and part of a jaw (presumably of Odocoileus virginianus) gathered by a Mr. Wardel from an anonymous cave in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Conococheague Creek, and kept in the collection of a Mr. Hayden of Baltimore. Rafinesque could refer these teeth to no other living animal known to him, despite having then lived in native white-tailed deer habitat for decades (although the white-tailed deer had been previously described in the literature, between 1850 and 1900 the white-tailed deer population was reduced to 300,000 to 500,000 individuals, found only in remote locations inaccessible to humans ^[8] ). Rafinesque described enamel that covered the tooth, including the hollow inside, and named the species Odocoileus speleus, for "teeth well hollowed" and speleus referring to a cave. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

References

1. Odocoileus, Mammal Species of the World, 3rd Edition
2. "Fossilworks: Odocoileus salinae". fossilworks.org.
3. Valerius Geist (1998). Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology. Stackpole Books. ISBN   978-0-8117-0496-0.
4. Gutiérrez, E. E., Helgen, K. M., McDonough, M. M., Bauer, F., Hawkins, M. T., Escobedo-Morales, L. A., ... & Maldonado, J. E. (2017). A gene-tree test of the traditional taxonomy of American deer: the importance of voucher specimens, geographic data, and dense sampling. ZooKeys, (697), 87.
5. "Definition of ODONTO-". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
6. "ὀδούς", Wiktionary, the free dictionary, 2025-01-02, retrieved 2025-07-31
7. "IUCN Red List maps". Explore and discover Red List species ranges and observations.
8. Hanberry, Brice B.; Hanberry, Phillip. "Regaining the History of Deer Populations and Densities in the Southeastern United States" (PDF). Wildlife Society Bulletin. 44 (3): 512–518.
9. Rafinesque, C. S.; Rafinesque, C. S. (1832). Atlantic journal and friend of knowledge. In eight numbers. Containing about 160 original articles and tracts on natural and historical sciences, the description of about 150 new plants, and 100 new animals or fossils. Many vocabularies of languages, historical and geological facts, &c. ... Vol. v.1:no.1-8 (1832-1833). Philadelphia. pp. 109–110.
10. Whittington, Gordon (2022-02-01). "How Did Whitetail Deer Get Their Name? Part 1". North American Whitetail. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
11. Whittington, Gordon (2022-02-07). "How Did Whitetail Deer Get Their Name? Part 2". North American Whitetail. Retrieved 2025-07-31.