Today we call it the Irish elk, or Megaloceros giganteus. 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.
What killed the Irish elk?
The Irish elk finally went extinct when
the antlers became
so large that the animals could no longer hold up their heads, or got entangled in the trees. Although orthogenesis was a common evolutionary theory in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it has since been abandoned for lack of a plausible mechanism.
Was the Irish elk and elk?
For starters, the Irish elk was neither exclusively Irish nor an elk.
The Irish elk was the largest deer that ever lived
. The name was first given because the European moose – an “elk” to the English – was the only familiar animal with antlers that even approached those of the giant deer in size.
When did the Irish elk become extinct?
Around 400,000 years ago, the Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus) roamed Pleistocene Europe and Asia. The species went extinct
around 8,000 years ago
.
Was Irish elk bigger than moose?
In body size, the Irish Elk matched the living moose subspecies (Alces alces gigas) as
the largest known deer
. The Irish Elk got to a mass of about 450–600 kg (990–1,320 lb), with large specimens having weighed 700 kg (1,540 lb) or more, roughly similar to the Alaskan Moose.
Can we bring back the Irish elk?
MNN lists the Irish elk as one such
species that could potentially be resurrected thanks to cloning
. “ … As with other animals that lived in the icy north during the Pleistocene, preserved specimens of the Irish elk can be readily found in melting permafrost, making it a prime candidate for being cloned.”
Did the Irish elk only live in Ireland?
Irish elk are extinct members of the Cervidae family that died off about 7,700 years ago. It was one of the largest deer species to ever walk the earth. Despite their name,
Irish elk did not exclusively live in Ireland
, nor were elk their closest relatives. …
How tall is an Irish elk?
The species is known for its remarkable size, as some adults stood
about 7 feet tall at the shoulders
and had nearly 90-pound antlers that spanned 12 feet. As a result of their wide geographical range and impressive size, Irish elk are frequently found in Ice Age paleontological collections.
Did female Irish elk have antlers?
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.
Did humans hunt Irish elk?
Human hunting may have forced Irish elk into
suboptimal feeding grounds. The range of the taxon appears to have collapsed during the Last Glacial Maximum, with few remains known between 27,500 and 14,600 years ago, and none between 23,300 and 17,500 years ago.
Are wolves in Ireland?
The last wolf in Ireland
Grey wolves used to live in the wild in Ireland but unfortunately they went
extinct
due to habitat loss of their native forests. The last grey wolf sighting in Ireland was recorded in 1786.
What is the largest deer in the world?
Size & description. The largest deer is
the moose
. It can grow up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) from hoof to shoulder and weigh around 1,800 lbs. (820 kg).
Which animal has biggest antlers?
The fallow deer and the various subspecies of the reindeer
have the largest as well as the heaviest antlers, both in absolute terms as well as in proportion to body mass (an average of 8 grams (0.28 oz) per kilogram of body mass); the tufted deer, on the other hand, has the smallest antlers of all deer, while the pudú …
How old is the 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
).
Were there ever bears in Ireland?
Bears were once common in Ireland but
are now extinct on the island
, dying out in the 1st millennium BC.
How much did Irish elk weigh?
Weighing
around 1,500 pounds
and rivaling a large moose in size, the Irish elk is one of the largest known deer. Originally discovered in bog deposits in Ireland, the Irish elk, or Megaloceros giganteus, lived on the European mainland as well.
