HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER ARTIODACTYLA
--> FAMILY Cervidae
--> SUBFAMILY Cervinae
GENUS Cervus
Author: | Linnaeus, 1758. | Citation: | Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1: 66. | Type Species: | Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, 1758. | Comments: | Formerly included Rusa, Rucervus, and Przewalskium as subgenera, see Groves and Grubb (1987). Van Gelder (1977b) also included Elaphurus, Axis, Dama and Hyelaphus. Information from various sources suggests that Cervus sensu lato is polyphyletic or paraphyletic. Dendrograms derived from mitochondrial-DNA restriction-site maps suggest that Axis axis and Rucervus duvauceli form a sister-clade to Elaphurus davidianus, Rusa unicolor and Cervus elaphus (Cronin, 1991), whereas genetic distances obtained from protein analysis suggested that Axis axis, Dama species and Rusa species formed a sister clade to Elaphurus davidianus, C. elaphus, and C. nippon (Emerson and Tate, 1993). Phylogram of Randi et al. (2001) suggests Rucervus eldi and Elaphurus davidianus form a clade whose sister-group includes Rusa and Cervus species. |
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