The dwarfing of red deer on Jersey in the Last Interglacial allows a detailed investigation of the ‘island dwarfing’ phenomenon. Uniquely, the island furnishes normalsized deer in stratified deposits both preceding and succeeding the dwarfing episode. Timing the dwarfing process depends on a number of assumptions about land-sea history, but suggests a maximum duration of 6000 years. The changes in size and body form of the deer are discussed in terms of adaptation, development and evolutionary rate, and are compared with modern analogues.
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Adrian M. Lister (1995) studied this question.
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