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Chronologic and Environmental Implications of a New Genus of Fossil Deer from Late Wisconsin Deposits at Toronto, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

C. S. Churcher  and
R. L. Peterson
C. S. Churcher
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, and Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada
R. L. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Mammalogy, Royal Ontario Museum, and Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
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Abstract

A new cervine deer (Torontoceros hypogaeus), described from a partial cranium with portions of the main antler beams, has been recovered from deposits of early Lake Ontario age on the exposed bench of Glacial Lake Iroquois at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The deer was about the size of a caribou, has heavy antlers that lie chiefly in a nearly horizontal plane, and its beams are bowed anteriorly. The tines are not flattened, the brow tines are asymmetrical, and no evidence of surface roughening or palmation of the beam is found. A 14C date of 11,315 ± 325 yr B.P. obtained on the antler allows the date at which Glacial Lake Iroquois drained to be revised to before 11,400 yr B.P. Spruce (Picea), pine (Pinus), and sedges (Cyperaceae) are major components of the associated pollen spectrum, which implies a typically interstadial or postglacial climate in which mixed forests grew in the Toronto area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , September 1982 , pp. 184 - 195
Copyright
University of Washington

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