Feeding behaviour of middle-size deer from the Upper Pliocene site of Saint-Vallier (France) inferred by morphological and micro/mesowear analysis

In the middle Villafranchian (Late Pliocene) fossil deposit of Saint-Vallier (Drôme, France), the international biochronological reference for the MN17 biozone, deer are the most common species. Two middle-sized taxa, “Metacervoceros” rhenanus [Dubois, E., 1904. On an equivalent of the Cromer Forest Bed in the Netherlands. Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, 214–222] and Croizetoceros ramosus (Croizet and Jobert, 1828), are particularly abundant. We have performed functional morphology and micro- and mesowear analyses in order to explain if and how the two herbivorous species avoided intra-guild competition. The results of the microwear analysis show a clear difference in the wear pattern of their tooth enamel, demonstrating the two species had different feeding behaviour habits.