Praemegaceros

Praemegaceros Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to Holocene
Skull of P. obscurus
Skeleton of P. verticornis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Cervinae
Genus:	†Praemegaceros Portis, 1920
Species
†P. dawkinsi †P. cazioti †P. obscurus †P. pliotarandoides †P. solilhacus †P. verticornis
Synonyms
Praerangifer Orthogonoceros Tamanalces

Praemegaceros is an extinct genus of deer, known from the Pleistocene and Holocene of Western Eurasia. Praemegaceros is considered to be a genus of "giant deer", with many species having an estimated body mass of around 400 kilograms (880 lb), considerably larger than most living deer.^[1]

The genus contains the subgenera Praemegaceros, Orthogonoceros and Nesoleipoceros. It has sometimes been synonymised with Megaloceros and Megaceroides, but is regarded as a distinct genus by most studies.^[2] Some authors have considered the genus closely related to Megaloceros, but this has been disputed by others.

The earliest species like P. obscurus and P. verticornis appeared in Europe between 2 and 1.5 million years ago.^[3] The genus was widely distributed across Europe, West and Central Asia during the Early-Middle Pleistocene, with fossils having been discovered in France, Georgia, Germany, England, Greece, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia Spain, Syria, and Tajikistan.^[4][5][6] The genus was extinct in mainland Europe and Asia by end of the Middle Pleistocene. An insular species, P. cazioti survived into the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in isolation on the Sardinia-Corsica archipelago until around 5500 BCE.^[7]