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Irish elk
The Irish elk (''Megaloceros giganteus'')〔 (1987). ''Megaceros'' or ''Megaloceros''? The nomenclature of the giant deer. ''Quaternary Newsletter'' 52: 14-16.〕 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, from Ireland to northern Asia and Africa. A related form is recorded from China during the Late Pleistocene. The most recent remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700 years ago in Siberia.〔 (2004). Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. ''Nature'' 431(7009): 684-689. PMID 15470427 (PDF fulltext ) (Supplementary information ). Erratum in ''Nature'' 434(7031): 413, 〕 Although most skeletons have been found in bogs in Ireland, the animal was not exclusive to Ireland and was not closely related to either of the living species currently called elk - ''Alces alces'' (the European elk, known in North America as the moose) or ''Cervus canadensis'' (the North American elk or wapiti). Early phylogenetic analyses supported the idea of a sister-group relationship between fallow deer (''Dama dama'') and the Irish Elk. However, newer morphological studies prove that the Irish elk is more closely related to its modern regional counterparts of the Red Deer (''Cervus elaphus''). For this reason, the name "Giant Deer" is used in some publications.〔Vislobokova, I. A. (2010), “Giant Deer: Origin, Evolution, Role in the Biosphere,” Paleontological Journal. vol. 46 no. 7 pg. 643-775〕〔Bro-Jorgensen, J. (2014), “Will their armaments be their downfall? Large horn size increases extinction risk in bovids,” Animal Conservation. vol. 17 no. 1 pg. 80-87〕〔Lemaitre, J. F. (2014), “The allometry between secondary sexual traits and body size is nonlinear among cervids,” Biology Letter. vol. 10 no. 3〕〔Highes, S et. al. (2006), “Molecular phylogeny of the extinct giant deer, Megalocerous giganteus,” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. vol. 40 no. 1 pg. 285-291〕〔Vislobokova, I. A. (2011), “Historical Development and Geographical Distribution of Giant Deer (Cervidae, Megacerini),” Paleontological Journal. vol. 45 no. 6 pg. 674-688〕
==Taxonomy==
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it began to be apparent to scientists that many fossilized specimens being discovered did not represent any organisms that were currently living on earth. The Irish elk was among these specimens. Neither exclusive to Ireland nor an elk, it was named so because the most well-known and most preserved fossil specimens have been found in lake sediments and peat bogs in Ireland. The Irish elk had a far-reaching range, being located throughout Europe, northern Africa, and some related forms located in China. The first scientists’ descriptions of the elk erroneously confused the animal with the American moose, while other scientists believed the elk was identical to the European reindeer. These scientists did not have the current conception of evolutionary biology that we have now. They did not consider extinction, believing instead that the unexplained fossils had living ancestors in undiscovered parts of the globe.
French scientist Georges Cuvier was the first to challenge that notion, documenting that the Irish elk did not belong to any species of mammal that was living at the time. His study of the Irish elk was a key moment in the history of the study of extinction.
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