Irish Elk (redirected from Irish giant deer)

Irish elk: see elk.

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Irish elk

Any member of a genus (Megaloceros) of extinct giant deer commonly found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits (1.8 million–10,000 years ago) in Europe and Asia. About the size of a modern moose, the Irish elk had the largest antlers of any form of deer known, in some specimens about 13 ft (4 m) across. It may have survived until c. 700–500 BC.

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Irish Elk 

(Megaceros giganteus), an extinct mammal of the deer family. In appearance it is similar to the fallow deer. The Irish elk existed in the Pleistocene and the early Holocene. It was distinguished by a large size and enormous antlers (up to 4 m in span), which broadened at the top in the shape of a paddle with several large prongs. The structure of the teeth, limbs, and antlers indicates that the Irish elk inhabited wet meadows. It was found in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. An especially large number of skeletons have been found in the peat bogs of Ireland. In the USSR, most of the remains of the Irish elk are found in human encampments from the early Carboniferous in the middle and southern latitudes, including the Crimea and the Northern Caucasus. Whole skeletons have been found in the territories of Riazan’ and Sverdlovsk oblasts.

REFERENCE

Osnovy paleontologii: Mlekopitaiushchie. Moscow, 1962.

B. A. TROFIMOV