History of the type specimen
Holotype of Cervalces latifrons from Happisburgh, Forest Bed Formation, Norfolk coast © Original drawing by Johnson (1874).
In 1874 Johnson described a new species of deer from Happisburgh (Forest Bed Formation, Norfolk coast, UK), based on a left frontal bone with a portion of antler, and named it Cervus latifrons.
Johnson pointed out that this species "is certainly new to Britain and...has not been found in any deposit of corresponding age with the Forest-Bed on the continent".
He proposed the specific name latifrons because "it is characterised by the great breadth of the frontal bone" and attributed it to the genus Cervus, the only deer genus recognised at that time.
Following authors put latifrons in the new genus Cervalces and maintained that the holotype from Happisburgh is inadequate because it is too fragmentary and of unclear age (at Happisburgh both Lower and Middle Pleistocene deposits outcrop). A neural skull with a basal portion of the antler from the Forest Bed at Mundesley (Norfolk Coast, UK) has been suggested as the new typus (type specimen).
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Glossary
Articular facet of the ungueal phalanx
Portion of the phalanx bearing the nails/claws which articulates to the previous finger/toe bones.
Chronospecies
A group of organisms that is derived from its ancestor (and/or develops into its descendant) by a process of slow, steady, evolutionary change and is not regarded as a member of the same species as its ancestor and/or descendant.
Cuneiforms
Bones of the ankle.
Ethology
Scientific study of animal behaviour.
Forbs
Herbaceous flowering plants that are not graminoids (grasses, sedges and rushes). The term is used in vegetation ecology to represent a guild of grassland plant species with broadly similar growth form, which in ecology is often more important than taxonomic relationship.
Holotype
The single specimen designated by an author to formally describe a new species.
Navico-cuboid
Main bone of the ankle of Ruminant animals.
Non-gregarious
Non-social, solitary
Metapodials
Hand and foot bones between the fingers/toes and the wrist/ankle.
Palustrine
Living in a marsh or swamp.
Phalanges
Bones of the fingers and toes.
Phyletic lineage
Ancestor-descendent populations that undergo morphological change over time.
Telmatic vegetation
Vegetation living in the swamp zone of a lake developing into a bog.