Megaloceros  giganteus

 

The famous Irish elk, or Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799), was a large, late Cenozoic deer that had enormous antlers.  The species is well represented by numerous fossils found in Ireland.  Its geographic range extended from northwestern Europe to northern Africa to eastern Asia.  Its temporal range extends from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene to the early Holocene.

 

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae

 

 Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) (above & below) - Irish elk skeleton from a Pleistocene-aged peat bog deposit near Dublin, Ireland.

(CM 71, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) 

 

 Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) (above & below) - Irish elk skull and antler from a Pleistocene-aged peat bog deposit near Dublin, Ireland.

(CM 71, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

 

Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) - reconstruction of the Irish elk (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA).

 

  

Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) - Irish elk skeleton.

(public display, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

 


 

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