 Description:
This is a most striking and dynamic display piece. It is quite large
with excellent color and presence. Note the row of large grinding
teeth. On an appropriate stand it would grace a living space, or
be the centerpiece of a fossil collection. This jaw section would
have been from the left upper side of the head. The lower part of
the eye socket is also clearly visible.
The
Irish Elk or Giant Deer, Megaloceros giganteus, also called Irish
Elk and Giant Deer) 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 some 400,000-9,500 years ago. Scientists once thought
the huge antlers were responsible for their extinction because they
grew so large that the animals could no longer lift their heads,
or got them tangled in trees. Steven Gould put this nonsense to
rest in various writings about the animal. Gould showed that for
deer in general, species with larger body size have antlers that
are more than proportionately larger, a consequence of allometry,
or differential growth rate of body size and antler size during
development -- a phenomenon now known to occur in many animals undergoing
evolutionary adaptive change. Current theories of Megaloceros giganteus
extinction now posit insufficient nutrition as a consequence of
climate change.
Gould,
Stephen J. (1974) Origin and Function of Bizarre Structures - Antler
Size and Skull Size in Irish Elk, Megaloceros giganteus. Evolution
28(2): 191-220.
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