HOW DID WHITE-TAILED DEER RESPOND TO THE PLEISTOCENE-HOLOCENE TRANSITION?

Previous studies have demonstrated complex responses by mammals that survived the end of the Pleistocene, a time of dramatic change in climate and the extinction of the megafauna. Some species got larger in the Holocene, others got smaller, and some got larger in the early or middle Holocene, and then returned to Pleistocene size ranges in the last few centuries. Purdue (1989) suggested that astragali of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from Illinois got larger about 3000 years ago, and remained consistently larger than early Holocene deer. We examined samples of white-tailed deer from the late Pleistocene Rancho La Brea tar pits, and compared them to specimens from modern samples in the western United States. Overall body size (as measured by their teeth) was not significantly different, but Pleistocene deer had significantly longer limbs than do modern deer. Comparisons of their astragali with the data from Purdue (1989) suggest that late Pleistocene deer astragali were smaller than those of the Holocene.