Irish Elk and Bush-Antlered Deer

Megaloceros (Irish Elk)

Great Britain

400,000 - 6,800BC

 Yet another ungulate (hoofed animals) hunted by humans. The Megaloceros (mega-lok-er-os) or Irish Elk lived during the last ice age, along side man, woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, neanderthal, and the british sabre-toothed cat. It was thought that the Irish Elk went extinct because it couldn't hold its head up because of antlers that were the size of a full grown man. But now its thought that it was the climate change and humans that made them extinct. The reason that the antler extinction was thrown out is because the animal would have compensated with the giant antlers by evolving stronger bone and mussel to carry them.

Irish Elk getting ready to joust 

The Irish Elk was taller then a human making it the biggest deer that has ever lived, yep, the Irish Elk should be called the 'Irish Deer' instead, because it is closer related to the deer then the elk. Some Irish Elks antlers were found halo suggesting that the species was adapting to the heavy antlers.

Eucladoceros (Bush-Antlered Deer)  

Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia 

5,000,000 - 10,000

The Eucladoceros (you-clad-oss-eh-russ) or Bush-Antlered Deer had antlers that branched off like a bush with its branches. Their was no pattern to the antlers, they were like a zebras strips, no two males looked alike. The bush-Antlered Deer believe it or not is the ancestor of all kinds of deer, from the woodland moose to the planes loving white-tailed deer some of us see in our back yards. They can be traced back too the Eucladoceros.

The Bush-Antlered Deer's antlers shed like the modern deer of today, and every year they got bigger and more impressive. The Bush-Antlered Deer most likely lived in huge herds like caribou do today.