What is Irish elk?
{{speciesbox | fossil_range = Middle [[Pleistocene]] to Middle [[Holocene]], {{fossil range|0.45|0.0077}} | image = Irish Elk Side (white background).jpg | image_caption = Mounted skeleton | taxon = Megaloceros giganteus | authority = ([[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach|Blumenbach]], 1799) | range_map = Megaloceros range map.svg | extinct = yes | range_map_caption = Time averaged range of ''M. giganteus'' during the Late Pleistocene | synonyms = *''Alce gigantea'' Blumenbach, 1799 *''Megaceros giganteus'' *''Megaloceros antiquorum'' *''Megaloceros giganteus giganteus'' *''Cervus giganteus'' *''Cervus ''(''Megaceros'')'' hibernicus'' Owen, 1844 *''Cervus'' ''megaceros'' Hart,1825 }} [[File:Megaceros giganteus antecedens.JPG|thumb|230px|''M. g. antecedens'' skull]] [[File:Lascaux, Megaloceros.jpg|right|thumb|230px|Cave painting from Lascaux]] [[File:Knight Megaloceros.jpg|thumb|230px|Restoration by [[Charles R. Knight]]]] The '''Irish elk''' (''Megaloceros giganteus'') was one of the largest [[deer]] that ever lived.<ref>Geist, Valerius 1998. ''Megaloceros'': the ice age giant and its living relatives. In ''Deer of the World''. Stackpole Books. {{ISBN|0-8117-0496-3}}</ref><ref>Lister A.M. 1987: ''Megaceros'' or ''Megaloceros''? The nomenclature of the giant deer. ''Quaternary Newsletter'' '''52''': 14-16.</ref> Its range extended across [[Eurasia]], from [[Ireland]] to east of [[Lake Baikal]] and [[China]]. The last known remains of the species have been [[carbon dating|carbon dated]] to about 7,700 years ago.<ref name=Stuart>Stuart A.J. ''et al'' 2004. Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. ''Nature'' '''431'''(7009): 684-689. PMID 15470427 {{doi|10.1038/nature02890}} [http://www.courses.rochester.edu/biology/documents/20Feb-PleistocenetoHolocene.pdf PDF fulltext] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060914154925/http://www.courses.rochester.edu/biology/documents/20Feb-PleistocenetoHolocene.pdf |date=2006-09-14 }} [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v431/n7009/suppin