Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene to Early Holocene |Mounted
skeleton in Bremen| The Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus), was a
species of Megaloceros and one of the largest deer that ever
lived. Its range extended across Eurasia, from Ireland to east
of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene. The latest known
remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700
years ago in Siberia. Although most skeletons have been found in
Irish bogs, the animal was not exclusively Irish 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); for this reason, the name "Giant Deer" is used in some
publications. The Irish Elk stood about 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) tall
at the shoulders, and it had the largest antlers of any known
cervid (a maximum of 3.65 m (12.0 ft) from tip to tip and
weighing up to 40 kg (88 lb)). In body size, the Irish Elk
matched the extant moose subs