Irish Elk

Irish elk, (Megaloceros giganteus), also called Irish deer or giant deer, extinct
species of deer, characterized by immense body size and wide antlers, commonly
found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits in Europe and Asia (the Pleistocene
Epoch began 2.6 million years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago). Despite its
distribution throughout Eurasia, the species was most abundant in Ireland. Although
several other species of Megaloceros are known, the Irish elk was the largest. It
was about the size of the modern moose (Alces alces) and had the largest antlers of
any form of deer known—in some specimens, 4 metres (about 13 feet) across. The
antlers differed from those of the modern deer: the main part was a massive single
sheet from which arose a series of pointed projections, or tines.

Many scientists contend that the Irish elk succumbed to starvation and went extinct
during the most recent ice age; however, fossils of M. giganteus uncovered in
Siberia have been dated to approximately 7,000–8,000 years ago, a period
characterized by warm temperatures.

Fuente: https://www.britannica.com/animal/Irish-elk

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The biggest males weighed 1,500 pounds, about the same as an Alaskan moose, and
they sported the largest antlers the world has ever known—12 feet across, weighing
almost 90 pounds. They were shed and regrown annually. The females were 10 to 15
percent shorter than the males, without antlers.

As a name, Irish elk is a double misnomer. The animal thrived in Ireland but was
not exclusively Irish, ranging across Europe to western Siberia for some 400,000
years during the Pleistocene. Nor was it an elk; it was a giant deer, with no
relation to the European elk (Alces alces) or North American elk (Cervus
canadensis). The evolution of its most striking feature was driven by sexual
selection; no survival advantages derived from such enormous antlers. “It was all
about impressing the females,” says Adrian Lister, a paleobiologist at the Natural
History Museum in London, England, and a leading expert on the species.

The animals died out in Western Europe during a time of rapid cooling known as the
Younger Dryas, which lasted from roughly 13,000 to 12,000 years ago. The giant deer
required abundant, mineral-rich grasses, leaves and shoots, and such vegetation
went into drastic decline as temperatures rapidly cooled. As landscapes turned to
ice and tundra, herd sizes would have been reduced until the animals dwindled away.

In Russia, M. giganteus survived until roughly 8,000 years ago, when warming
temperatures turned the semi-open country favored by the deer into dense
forest. Humans forgot all about this giant deer until the late 1500s and early
1600s, when Irish peasants, digging in bogs for peat to burn as fuel, started
finding their fossilized remains. Kings and nobles prized the giant antlers.

Fuente: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/irish-elk-biggest-
antlers-ever-180977706/

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Why Did the Irish Elk go Extinct?

The youngest fossil Irish elk is only around 7,700 years old, uncovered in parts of
Siberia. Though populations likely when extinct at different times in different
parts of the globe, this seems to be the last time the Irish Elk was seen on Earth.
Exactly why the Irish elk went extinct is still up for debate, though several
theories abound.
Several drastic changes occurred over the face of the globe during the last few
thousand years that Irish elk were widespread across Europe. The first was the Last
Glacial Period – a time of generally lower temperatures and fully-developed
glaciers that extended from around 115,000 years ago to around 11,700 years ago.
After that time, glaciers melted away and global temperatures slowly began to rise.
Not only did this change the types of vegetation available, but it also helped
humans expand their population throughout Europe.

Several theories suggest that human hunting was the ultimate cause of Irish elk
extinction, whether this was due to maladaptations of the elk – such as its massive
antlers that could have prohibited running – or simply widespread hunting that
constantly reduced the population until it went extinct. Humans have wiped out many
of the largest animals across many continents, so this theory is highly likely.

Fuente: https://biologydictionary.net/irish-elk/