![]() ![]() In 1844 Richard Owen named another synonym of the Irish elk, including it within the newly named subgenus Megaceros, Cervus ( Megaceros) hibernicus. Outdated 1897 reconstruction of doe and stag Irish elk by Joseph Smit Adrian Lister in 1987 judged that "the phase " Cornibus deciduis palmatis" constitutes a definition sufficient under the (article 12) to validate Megalocerus." The original spelling of Megalocerus was never used after its original publication. The 1828 publication was approved by International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) in 1977 as an available publication for the basis of zoological nomenclature. In 1828 Brookes published an expanded list in the form of a catalogue for an upcoming auction, which included the Latin phrase " Cornibus deciduis palmatis" as a description of the remains. The original description was considered by Adrian Lister in 1987 to be inadequate for a taxonomic definition. giganteus, making the former a junior synonym. The type and only species named in the description being Megaloceros antiquorum, based on Irish remains now considered to belong to M. The etymology being from Greek: μεγαλος megalos "great" + κερας keras "horn, antler". Anatomical and Zoological Preparations, p 20. (Irish), with unusually fine horns, (in part restored) two uncommonly fine Crania of the Megalocerus antiquorum (Mihi). In 1827 Joshua Brookes, in a listing of his zoological collection, named the new genus Megaloceros (spelled Megalocerus in the earlier editions) in the following passage: Īmongst other Fossil Bones, there. įrench scientist Georges Cuvier documented in 1812 that the Irish elk did not belong to any species of mammal currently living, declaring it " le plus célèbre de tous les ruminans fossiles" (the most famous of all fossil ruminants). ![]() The type specimen of giant deer is currently exposed in Barmeath Castle where Thomas Wright first saw and described it. The holotype of Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) is a well-preserved male skull with exceptionally large antlers found in Dunleer environs ( County Louth, Ireland). This particular feature mentioned by Blumenbach permitted to Roman Croitor to identify the type specimen of giant deer that was figured and described for the first time in Louthiana of Thomas Wright. According to Blumenbach, the distance between summits of giant deer antlers may attain 14 feet (approximately 4.4 m). The original Blumenbach's description of Alce gigantea provides rather scant information about the species, specifying only that this particular kind of "fossil elk" comes from Ireland and is characterized by immense body size. It was first formally named as Alce gigantea by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in his Handbuch der Naturgeschichte in 1799, with Alce being a variant of Alces, the Latin name for the elk. The first scientific descriptions of the animal's remains were made by Irish physician Thomas Molyneux in 1695, who identified large antlers from Dardistown-which were apparently commonly unearthed in Ireland-as belonging to the elk (known as the moose in North America), concluding that it was once abundant on the island. Taxonomy Research history Skeletal reconstruction from 1856 Although one study suggested that the Irish elk was closely related to the red deer ( Cervus elaphus), most other phylogenetic analyses support the thesis that their closest living relatives are fallow deer ( Dama). For this reason, the name "giant deer" is used in some publications, instead of "Irish elk". It is 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). The Irish elk is known from abundant skeletal remains which have been found in bogs in Ireland. The most recent remains of the species have been radiocarbon dated to about 7,700 years ago in western Russia. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleistocene, from Ireland to Lake Baikal in Siberia. The Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus), also called the giant deer or Irish deer, is an extinct species of deer in the genus Megaloceros and is one of the largest deer that ever lived.
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