Top: Fossil Megaloceros giganteus with grown man for comparison.

Bottom: Approximation of Megaloceros giganteus in continental European environment.

The Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus), which wasn’t really an elk at all, wasn’t actually “Irish”, either. Though its fossils have been extensively preserved in the Irish peat bogs, and were first found in Ireland, this cervid lived throughout Eurasia, all the way east to Lake Baikal.

Their proposed extinction during the last major ice age has been disputed recently, with the dating of more recent bone caches. The current date that’s generally accepted for their (effective) extinction is around 7600 years ago.

Extinct Monsters. A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life. Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, 1896.

Essay on the Theory of the Earth. Baron Georges Cuvier, 1827.

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