Variation in the antlers of North AmericanCervalces(Mammalia; Cervidae): Review of new and previously recorded specimens

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Abstract
A Cervalces antler rack is reported from Canton, South Dakota, and is compared with that of C. scotti from New Jersey and with other specimens from North America and Eurasia. Other new materials are reported from the Old Crow Basin, Yukon Territory, Canada, the Fairbanks area, Alaska, U.S.A., and from various localities in the eastern U.S.A. Additional measurements are given for previously recorded specimens. Known only from the Pleistocene Epoch, Cervalces possibly represented a Holarctic genus in which beam length and conformation of the tines and palmations varied considerably across its range. The genus appears to comprise two species: the North American species, C. scotti, with branching antlers whose variations are explicable either through age, maturational, geographic, or possibly stratigraphie variation; and the Eurasian species, C. latifrons, with flat palmate antlers. The specific status of the Beringian population with large antler beams is unknown, because no palmations have been reported. The antler differences between C. scotti and C. latifrons are so marked that C. latifrons is placed in the subgenus Libralces, and C. scotti in the subgenus Cervalces, as C. (L.) latifrons and C. (C.) scotti, respectively.

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