Megaloceros a.k.a Irish Elk and Giant Deer

Meg-ah-loe-seh-ross.
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Harper Gray

Paleoartist

Harper Grey combines artistic talent with scientific precision to bring extinct creatures and environments back to life. Collaborating closely with paleontologists

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Name

Megaloceros ‭(‬Great horn‭)‬.

Phonetic

Meg-ah-loe-seh-ross.

Named By

Classification

Chordata,‭ ‬Mammalia,‭ ‬Artiodactyla,‭ ‬Cervidae.

Diet

Herbivore.

Species

Size

2.1‭ ‬meters high at the shoulder for the largest species M.‭ ‬giganteus‭ (‬Irish elk‭)‬. Smaller species as small as 1 meter tall at the shoulder.

Known locations

Eurasia.

Time Period

Mid Ionian of the Pleistocene through to early Holocene.

Fossil representation

Multiple specimens.

In Depth

Further Reading

– Origin and Function of ‘Bizarre’ Structures – Antler Size and Skull Size in ‘Irish Elk’, Megaloceros giganteus. – Evolution 28(2): 191-220.Stephen J. Gould – 1974. – Notes on Megaloceros luochuanensis (sp. nov.) from Hei-Mugou, Luochuan, Shaanxi province. – Vertebrata PalAsiatica (Gujizhui dongwu yu gurenlei) 20(3):228-235 – X. Xue – 1982. – Taphonomy and Herd Structure of the Extinct Irish Elk, Megalocerous giganteus. – Science. New 228 (4697): 340–344. – Anthony Barnosky – 1985. – Megaceros or Megaloceros? The nomenclature of the giant deer. – Quaternary Newsletter 52: 14-16. – A. M. Lister – 1987. – Fighting behavior of the extinct Irish elk. – Modern Geology 11: 1–28. – A. Kitchener – 1987. – Antler growth and extinction of Irish elk. – Evolutionary Ecology Research: 235–249. – Ron Moen, John Pastor & Yosef Cohen – 1999. – Antler growth and extinction of Irish Elk. – Evolutionary Ecology Research 1: 235–249 – R. A. Moen, J. Pastor & Y. Cohen – 1999. – Survival of the Irish elk into the Holocene. – Nature 405: 753–754. – Silvia Gonzalez, Andrew Kitchener & Adrian Lister – 2000. – Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. – Nature 431(7009): 684-689 – A. J. Stuart, P.A. Kosintsev, T. F. G. Higham & A. M. Lister – 2004. – The phylogenetic position of the giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. – Nature 438 (7069): 850–853. – A. M. Lister, C. J. Edwards, D. A. W. Nock, M. Bunce, I. A. van Pijlen, D. G. Bradley, M. G. Thomas, I. Barnes – 2005. – Molecular phylogeny of the extinct giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus. – Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40(1): 285–291. – Sandrine Hughes, Thomas J. Hayden, Christophe J. Douady, Christelle Tougard, Mietje Germonpr�, Anthony Stuart, Lyudmila Lbova, Ruth F. Carden,Catherine H�nni & Ludovic Say – 2006. – Phylogeny of the giant deer with palmate brow tines Megaloceros from west and Sinomegaceros from east Eurasia. – Quaternary International 179 (1): 135–162. – J. van der Made & H. W. Tong – 2008. – Getting to the Hart of the Matter: Did Antlers Truly Cause the Extinction of the Irish Elk?. Oikos, (9), 1397. – C. Worman & T. Kimbrell – 2008. – The latest Early Pleistocene giant deer Megaloceros novocarthaginiensis n. sp. and the fallow deer “Dama df. vallonnetensis” from Cueva Victoria (Murcia, Spain)”. Mastia. 11–13: 269–323. – Jan Van Der Made – 2015. – Deer of the genus Megaloceros (Mammalia, Cervidae) from the Early Pleistocene of Ciscaucasia. – Paleontological Journal. 50 (1): 87–95. – V. V. Titov & A. K. Shvyreva – 2016. – The dwarfed “giant deer” Megaloceros matritensis n.sp. from the Middle Pleistocene of Madrid – A descendant of M. savini and contemporary to M. giganteus. – Quaternary International – Jan Van Der Made – 2019.

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT