The Identity and Postcranial Osteology of Odocoileus Lucasi (Hay) 1927: A Plio-Pleistocene Deer from California and Idaho

A nearly complete postcranial skeleton of an adult male deer, the size of a small Cervus elaphus, from Honey Lake, Lassen County, California is described and compared to other New World extant and extinct species of deer. Our study of its skeletal morphology and dentition supports the assignment of this large odocoileine deer to Odocoileus lucasi, new combination. This species is Plio-Pleistocene (2.5 mya-700,000 ya) and has been found in California and Idaho. Both limb elements from Idaho on which Hay (1927) established the status of Cervus? lucasi belong to the same taxon as the Honey Lake fossil deer. The post-cranial skeletal elements of O. lucasi display characteristics of Odocoileus presently shared by the two living species O. hemionus and O. virginianus, which we consider to be temporal descendants of O. lucasi. This study will facilitate future studies of previously unidentifiable New World postcranial cervid elements.