Megaloceros
Megaloceros (from Greek: μεγαλος megalos + κερας keras, literally "Great Horn"; see also Lister [1987]) is an extinct genus of deer whose members lived throughout Eurasia from the early Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, Megaloceros giganteus, vernacularly known as the "Irish elk" or "giant elk", is also the best known. Fallow deer are thought to be their closest living relatives.[1][2][3] Megaloceros is part of the deer family which includes moose, elk, reindeer, and other cervids.
Most members of the genus were extremely large animals that favoured meadows or open woodlands. They are the most cursorial deer known,[4] with most species averaging slightly below 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) at the withers. The various species of the Cretan genus Candiacervus – the smallest of which, C. rhopalophorus was just 65 cm (26 in) high at the shoulder – are sometimes included in Megaloceros as a subgenus.
Despite its name, the Irish elk was neither restricted to Ireland nor closely related to either species commonly referred to as elk (Alces alces in British English and other European languages; Cervus canadensis in North American English) but instead is closely related to the fallow deer genus Dama. The genus was part of a Late Neogene Eurasian radiation of fallow deer relatives of which today only two taxa remain.(Lister et al. 2005, Hughes et al. 2006).
Although sometimes synonymized with Megaloceros, Praemegaceros, Sinomegaceros and Megaceroides are apparently generically distinct.[5] M. savini and related taxa (novocarthaginiensis and matritensis) are split into the separate genus Praedama by some scholars.[6]
