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The Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus), [1] [2] also called the giant deer or Irish deer, is an extinct species of deer in the genus Megaloceros and is one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleistocene , from Ireland (where it is known from abundant remains found in bogs) to Lake Baikal in Siberia .
With Alce being a variant of the genus Alces used for elk/moose. [4] In 1827 Joshua Brookes, in a listing of his zoological collection, named the Megaloceros (spelled Megalocerus in the earlier editions) in the following passage: [5] [6] Amongst other Fossil Bones, there [are] ... two uncommonly fine Crania of the Megalocerus antiquorum (Mihi ...
The Leeds Irish Elk, the skeleton of a great deer or Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus, now extinct), presented by philanthropist William Gott to Leeds Philosophical Society for their museum in 1862. It has been on display for over 150 years in the city, and is now in Leeds City Museum, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
The Irish Room, the ground floor of the museum, displays Irish animals, notably several mounted skeletons of giant Irish deer. Numerous skulls of those and other deer line the walls. Stuffed and mounted mammals, birds, fish — and insects and other animals native to or found in Ireland — comprise the rest of the ground floor.
Index fossils must have a short vertical range, wide geographic distribution and rapid evolutionary trends. Another term, "zone fossil", is used when the fossil has all the characters stated above except wide geographical distribution; thus, they correlate the surrounding rock to a biozone rather than a specific time period.
The extinct Irish elk (Megaloceros) was not a member of the genus Cervus but rather the largest member of the wider deer family (Cervidae) known from the fossil record. [ 11 ] Until recently, red deer and elk were considered to be one species, Cervus elaphus , [ 5 ] [ 12 ] with over a dozen subspecies.
Irish elk skeleton with antlers spanning 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) and a mass of 40 kg (88 lb) Peramorphosis is delayed maturation with extended periods of growth. An example is the extinct Irish elk. From the fossil record, its antlers spanned up to 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, which is about a third larger than the antlers of its close relative, the moose ...
Savage was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 2 July 1927 to an old family prominent in Ulster.He recalled a large rack of antlers of the extinct Irish elk mounted in the entrance hall of the family home, which colleague Michael Benton writes may have inspired Savage to pursue the study of fossil mammals. [3]