Besides mass extinction, adaptive radiation is a common phenomenon, it can be found in all taxa. The scale of adaptive radiation depends on time and plasticity of the organism. The presence of several morphotypes or species of Pleistocene cervids on Crete is explained by De Vos (1996) as an adaptive radiation, in a one-invasion, one-radiation model. The Cretan deer became extinct at the arrival of man, about 8000 BP.
