Irish Elk
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
see elk.
More on Irish Elk
Elk - name applied to several large members of the deer family.
Irish elk
Despite its name, the Irish elk was found all across Europe and Asia, and in North Africa, and is technically a deer rather than an elk. It is famed for the size of its antlers, which spanned up to 4.3m and weighed 45kg.
The Irish Elk, Megaloceros, is misnamed, for it is neither exclusively Irish nor is it an elk. It is a giant extinct deer, the largest deer species ever, that stood up to seven feet at the shoulder (2.1 meters), with antlers spanning up to 12 feet (3.
Megaceros (=Megaloceros) giganteus (meaning "gigantic large horn"), is the prehistoric Irish elk (more closely related to the fallow deer than the elk).
A prehistoric mammal, the extinct Irish Elk, Megaloceros giganteus, had the largest antlers ever. A specimen found in an Irish peat bog had antlers 4.3 m or 14 ft across which weighed 45kg or 100 lbs.
The biggest living member of the deer family is the moose (weighing about 800 kg); the smallest is the Andean Pudu (weighing about 10 kg).
The earliest deer appeared during the late Oligocene Epoch, roughly 35 million years ago. The "Irish elk" ...
Here may be mentioned the gigantic fossil deer commonly known as the Irish elk, which is perhaps a giant type of fallow-deer, and if so should be known as Cervus (Dama) giganteus. If a distinct type, its title should be C. (Megaceros) giganteus.
 See also: Elk, Deer, Moose, Red Deer, Fallow deer
  
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