抄録
A skull of a fossil deer dredged from the sea-floor of the East China Sea off Ushibuka City, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Kyushu, Japan is identified by the size and shape of its pedicles as the red deer Cervus elaphus, presently living on the Eurasian and North American continents. This is the first well-documented fossil record of red deer from Japan, although less reliable and doubtful fossil occurrences of the species have previously been reported from the Pleistocene of central Japan. A 14C date of 19, 780±190 yr BP was obtained for collagen fractions extracted from the fossil skull of C.elaphus using a Tandetron accelerator mass spectrometer. The geologic age of the fossil agrees with the accepted 14C age of the Last Glacial maximum. The present finding of the fossil red deer strongly indicates that during the Last Glacial maximum the Asian continent and Kyushu were connected by a land bridge in the northern part of East China Sea.
