Validity of the name Dama roberti Breda & Lister, 2013, a small European Pleistocene deer, and the status of Cervus polignacus Robert, 1829 and Cervus roberti Pomel, 1853

摘要

Under the name Cervus Dama polignacus, Robert (1829) described a large deer skeleton found in Middle Pleistocene deposits in the vicinity of Soleilhac, France. He then described a second, much smaller deer skeleton found some distance away. He pointed out that it was adult and therefore fully grown, and explicitly left open the question of whether it was conspecific with the larger individual, a question that only new discoveries would resolve: ‘Cette énorme différence de grandeur . . . indiquerait-elle deux espèces différentes, ou seulement deux races de la même espèce . . . ? C’est ce que de nouvelles découvertes me permettront de décider’ [Does this enormous difference in size . . . indicate two different species, or merely two races of the same species . . . ? This is what new discoveries will allow me to decide’]. That he intended the name C. polignacus to refer to the larger specimen is reinforced by his informal name for it: ‘Grand Daim de Polignac’. Under Article 72.4.1 of the Code, the smaller skeleton was only doubtfully attributed to C. polignacus and does not constitute part of its type series; the larger skeleton is the holotype.