Morenelaphus

Morenelaphus Temporal range: Late Pleistocene (Lujanian) ~0.8–0.011 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Capreolinae
Genus:	†Morenelaphus Carette 1922
Species:	†M. brachyceros
Binomial name
†Morenelaphus brachyceros Gervais & Ameghino 1880

Morenelaphus is an extinct genus of capreoline deer that lived in South America during the Pleistocene, ranging from the Pampas to southern Bolivia and Northeast Brazil. There is only a single recognised species, Morenelaphus brachyceros. It was a large deer, with some specimens estimated to exceed 200 kilograms in body mass.^[1] The antlers were over 70 cm in length, and are superficially similar those of deer belonging to the subfamily Cervinae, like red deer.^[2] Fossils of the genus have been recovered from the Agua Blanca, Fortín Tres Pozos and Luján Formations of Argentina, the Ñuapua Formation of Bolivia, Santa Vitória do Palmar in southern Brazil, Paraguay and the Sopas Formation of Uruguay.^[3]

Dental microwear analysis suggests Morenelaphus had a mixed-feeder diet, including grass and perhaps with the occasional ingestion of gritstone. It went extinct during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, around 12,000 years ago, possibly as a result of climate change and nutritional stress.^[4]

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