The fallow deer from Contrada Monticelli (Bari, southern Italy): the southernmost occurrence of a large Dama in the early Middle Pleistocene

Among the fossils coming from the Contrada Monticelli site (Castellana Grotte, BA), preserved at the Museum of Earth Sciences of the Universita degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, some cervid fossil remains have been studied. The site was discovered during the 1970s, but the fossil material was never studied, except in a few cases, which do not include the cervid remains: in fact they have never been previously studied or classified. Although the scarcity of the sample and the lack of antler remains suggest caution, a morphological analysis has allowed us to recognise the presence of a large Middle Pleistocene fallow deer, here provisionally classified as Dama cf. roberti Breda & Lister, 2013. The presence of D. cf. roberti in the Contrada Monticelli site would represent the southernmost presence of this species in Europe, and its occurrence is consistent with the biochronological attribution of Contrada Monticelli site to the Isernia Faunal Unit.