Williamson's Weekly Notes - Sept 30 2009

But they would have been dwarfed by Megaloceros giganteus, which would have been hunted almost half a million years ago by Boxgrove Man.

This fabled beast shown in the picture would dwarf a fallow buck from Petworth. The giant deer was found across Europe. Remains have been discovered in France, Germany, Denmark, and Russia as well as from a swamp in Newbury here in England.

Remains of the Ice Age species have been recovered mainly from the Isle of Man and Irish bogs.

The giant deer stood six feet high at the shoulder and weighed 1,000 pounds which is almost half a ton. Early taxonomy placed him close to the moose so he used to be called the Irish elk. His extraordinary antlers weighed 100 pounds.

This would be the equivalent of carrying two sacks of coal on your head, or a slim woman, for eight months of the year, so the neck vertebrae of this enormous animal were almost as wide as its skull, and the palm width of those antlers almost as big as the rib cage. It must have felt a sense of great relief when these fell off each year, although it probably then felt vulnerable.

Giant deers' antlers stretched nine feet wide in most cases although there is one record of a span of 14ft. A vertebrae measured ten inches in circumference.

The deer became extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, ten thousand years ago. They are thought to have existed right back through the Pleistocene to the Pliocene, six hundred thousand years ago. Remains do occur in caves but the existence of the giant deer appearing in cave paintings is disputed as these might just as easily relate to elk.

The best remains so far discovered were in a clay hole at Ballybetagh, Co. Dublin. The deer had been trapped in a deep watery pit with steep slippery sides. Giant deer stood as tall as a present day moose. The British Museum has skeletons of both stag and hind both of which measure 71 inches at the shoulder.

There is speculation as to why this species died out. Climate change is the most probable as the land became more afforested after the Ice Age.

Then there is the question as to whether the stag became over-specialised in his weaponry, leading to infertility. Too much on top, not enough underneath.