Description

Haploidoceros mediterraneus was a medium-sized cervid, roughly 70 to 80 kilograms in weight, with long limbs suggesting agility and a bounding gait. Its distinctive antlers had only a main posterior beam and one shorter anterior tine—an unusual reduction compared to other deer of its time. Dental and skeletal evidence indicate a mixed feeding style, browsing on shrubs and young leaves with some grazing in open patches. The species lived during the Middle to early Late Pleistocene, between roughly 400,000 and 75,000 years ago. It likely disappeared as glacial climates advanced and competing deer species expanded into its Mediterranean range.