THE FOSSIL FALLOW DEER OF THE UPPER RHINE VALLEY IN COMPARISON TO DAMA-DAMA FROM NEUMARK-NORD (SAXONY-ANHALT), LEHRINGEN (LOWER-SAXONY) ANDTHE RECENT EUROPEAN FALLOW DEER

In the Upper Rhine area, new finds of Dama dama of the last interglaci al period belonging to collections of the Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart a nd the private collections of F. Menger, H. HARTNAGEL, H. BUCHHAUPT ar e described. The material is compared to the recent European fallow de er, the Eemian Dama from Lehringen (Niedersachsen, Verden a.d. Aller) and D. dama from Neumark-Nord at the northern periphery of the Geiselt al (Sachsen-Anhalt, SE of Halle a.d. Saale), which are either of Eemia n of intra-Saalian interglacial age. Dama dama from the Upper Rhine ar ea is characterised by a 10% greater body size compared to the recent fallow deer, and a 10% smaller body size in relation to D. dama from N eumark-Nord by strongly developed additional tines above the browtine (Figs 7-13) D. dama dama and the fallow deer from the Upper Rhine area share short browtines. The browtines of D. dama from Neumark-Nord are much longer (Figs. 1-2). Like in D. dama from Neumark-Nord, the beam can be flattened above the browtine forming a dorsal ridge. The antler s of the fallow deer from the Upper Rhine area morphologically interli nk D. dama from Neumark-Nord and the recent European fallow deer.