The bighorn deer is the largest member of the deer family. Description of the big-horned Irish deer Ancient deer

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BIG HORN DEER (Megaloceros giganteus)

Deer appeared over 25 million years ago. They were medium-sized animals, hornless or with very simple horns. They lived in small family groups, spread widely throughout Eurasia and gave a wide variety of forms. But from what genus the bighorn deer originated is still not clear. It is strange, but according to paleontological finds, it seems that the genus of big-horned deer arose 350 thousand years ago, as if immediately (in the geological sense) throughout Eurasia, from Ireland to Japan! Apparently, this testifies to the high adaptability of large-horned deer to the most diverse habitat conditions in the middle latitudes. They lived in forests and steppes, but did not go further than 50 ° north latitude and avoided humid subtropics.

Appearing at a time when pithecanthropes still lived, large-horned deer became typical animals of the mammoth fauna. Having successfully existed in the most severe times of several hundred thousand years and survived the Neanderthals, they disappeared already under a reasonable person. In deposits coinciding in time with the New Stone Age, the remains of these animals have not been found.

The disappearance of the bighorn deer, like many other large mammals of the mammoth fauna, coincides with the event in human history, which is called the "Neolithic Revolution". It is still difficult to say whether climate change or active human mining activities have played a decisive role in this.

The skeleton of a large-mouthed deer discovered in 1920 during peat digging in the Ryazan region (horns and skull are shown in the photograph) is one of the few complete finds. Apparently, this fossil giant drowned in a swamp and therefore so well preserved. The beast was more than 2 meters high at the withers, wore amazing huge horns, reaching a span of 3 meters. If the beauty of these animals is judged by their horns, then there was no more beautiful deer on Earth. Horns are a sign of gender, strength, power of the animal.

Naturally, such a fantastically beautiful deer inspired K. K. Flerov to create a picture. He tried to give not a generalized, but a specific image of the beast, the one that died in the swamp. One of the surviving sketches is shown on a postcard: a deer standing in a swampy forest.

But the work did not satisfy the artist. Reflecting on an unusual way, he wanted to convey the fabulousness, power and beauty of the deer king. It was difficult to merge together a specific scientific and artistic image. For many years, K. K. Flerov returned to this topic.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bighorn deer reconstruction

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Skeleton diagram

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Notes

Literature

• Trofimov B. A. Fundamentals of paleontology: Mammals. - M., 1962.
• Vislobokova I. A. History of bighorn deer (Megacerini, Cervidae, Artiodactyla) / Ed. ed. Corresponding Member RAS A. V. Lopatin. - M.: GEOS, 2012. - 102 p.: ill. - (Proceedings of the Paleontological Institute / Russian Academy of Sciences; v. 293). - Bibliography: p. 91-100. [Ed. supported by RFBR]. - ISBN 978-5-89118-598-2.

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An excerpt characterizing the Great Horned Deer

Staying in Vogucharovo became dangerous. From all sides they could hear about the approaching French, and in one village, fifteen miles from Bogucharov, the estate was plundered by French marauders.
The doctor insisted that the prince should be taken further; the leader sent an official to Princess Mary, persuading her to leave as soon as possible. The police officer, having arrived in Bogucharovo, insisted on the same thing, saying that the French were forty miles away, that French proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the princess did not leave with her father before the fifteenth, then he would not be responsible for anything.
The princess on the fifteenth decided to go. The worries of preparations, giving orders, for which everyone turned to her, occupied her all day. She spent the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth, as usual, without undressing, in the room next to the one in which the prince lay. Several times, waking up, she heard his groaning, muttering, the creaking of the bed, and the steps of Tikhon and the doctor turning him over. Several times she listened at the door, and it seemed to her that today he muttered louder than usual and tossed and turned more often. She could not sleep and several times approached the door, listening, wanting to enter and not daring to do so. Although he did not speak, Princess Marya saw, knew how unpleasant any expression of fear for him was to him. She noticed how dissatisfied he turned away from her gaze, sometimes involuntarily and stubbornly directed at him. She knew that her arrival at night, at an unusual time, would annoy him.
But she had never been so sorry, she had never been so afraid of losing him. She recalled her whole life with him, and in every word and deed of him she found an expression of his love for her. Occasionally, between these memories, the temptations of the devil burst into her imagination, thoughts about what would happen after his death and how her new, free life would be arranged. But with disgust she drove away these thoughts. By morning it was quiet, and she fell asleep.
She woke up late. The sincerity that comes with awakening clearly showed her what occupied her most in her father's illness. She woke up, listened to what was behind the door, and, hearing his groaning, told herself with a sigh that everything was the same.
- But what to be? What did I want? I want him dead! she cried out in disgust at herself.
She dressed, washed, read prayers and went out onto the porch. Horseless carriages were brought up to the porch, in which things were being packed.

Although the big-horned deer has long since died out, its image, restored on the basis of archaeological finds, still delights and amazes today. The greatest interest is caused by its large antlers, like those of an elk. There is not and never was a second such deer in the world!

The giant deer (lat. Megaloceros giganteus) is also called the Irish elk because of its huge antlers. This species of extinct mammal belonged to the deer family (lat. Cervidae), a suborder of ruminants (lat. Ruminantia). This is one of the largest deer that has ever lived on Earth.

Close relatives

Due to the spatulate shape of its antlers, this extinct species of giant deer was thought from the beginning to be a close relative of elk and modern fallow deer. Later morphological and molecular studies have proven its relationship with the current Canadian deer (lat. Cervus elaphus canadensis) and red deer (lat. Cervus elaphus). Only recent genetic studies have finally confirmed that the closest relative of Megaloceros giganteus, in fact, is

Giant megaloceras: origin

Archaeological studies show that Megaloceros giganteus lived in Northern Europe and Northern Asia (lived in almost all of Eurasia: from Ireland to Lake Baikal), as well as on the northern outskirts of Africa. Most of the fossil remains of the animal were found in the swamps of present-day Ireland, hence its second name is the Irish elk. We add that the term "moose" was assigned to him because of the external similarity of the horns. Several skeletons of this giant were also found on the territory of our country (Crimea, North Caucasus, Sverdlovsk and Ryazan regions).

These lived at the end of the Pleistocene and at the beginning of the Holocene, that is, in the period from 400 thousand to 7700 years ago. Megaloceros giganteus probably belonged to the so-called Pleistocene and early Holocene megafauna. In particular, saber-toothed tigers, bears and smilodons lived next to him, as well as mammoths and hairy rhinos, which together with him constituted the group of the largest herbivores of that period.

Description of the giant animal

The sizes of the big-horned deer significantly exceeded the sizes of modern deer. In its appearance, it rather resembled the well-known elk. A strong physique is more of a pattern than an exception. There is nothing surprising in it, because the animal had to carry its huge horns, and this requires a mountain of muscles and strong bones. In body structure, he was similar to the Alaskan elk (lat. Alces alces gigas), which is currently considered the largest living representative of the genus. The big-horned deer reached about 2.1 m in height at the withers. Despite its huge size, it ate the same food as today's deer. From the rock paintings created by the ancient people of the Pleistocene and Holocene, it is clear that they often met with this giant and even hunted him.

Giant deer horns

The impressive antlers of the giant deer had a span of about three meters. The largest antlers of this deer found during archaeological excavations reached 3.65 m, and weighed almost 40 kg! This fact is so unusual and unique that even several different theories of their evolution have appeared. Some scientists are of the opinion that in an animal it is the result of strict natural selection. Males actively used the formations on their heads in the struggle for the attention of females. Thus, only the largest and strongest individuals survived and gave birth.

According to another theory, the Irish deer became extinct because of its antlers. At some point, they reached a very bulky size and began to interfere with the usual way of life. The reason for the extinction of the species, scientists call the forest attack on the open spaces in which it probably lived. The horns interfered with the animal while passing through dense thickets and forests, because of this, he often got stuck and could not get out. Deer became easy prey for predators, who eventually exterminated them.

Later scientific research

This evolutionary theory was formulated by scientists a long time ago. However, it was not until 1974 in a study on Megaloceros by Stephen Jay Gould that it was considered in more detail. He proved that the bighorn deer had really large and disproportionate antlers. This was probably the result of allometry, that is, uneven growth. As a result, the proportions of the body were violated.

Gould found that the large size of horns, and the possibility of their occurrence in Megaloceros giganteus, was due to evolutionary selection. However, horns, in his opinion, were ill-suited for competitive fights between males of this extinct species. They probably served only to intimidate rivals. Apparently, unlike other deer, Megaloceros giganteus could not even turn his head to demonstrate his superiority. It was enough that he stood and looked ahead. In 1987, another scientist, Kitchener, provided evidence that these prehistoric animals sometimes used their huge horns to fight male rivals.

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✪ JAPÓN 1: Prehistoria - Periodos Jomon, Yayoi y Kofun

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Now on sale... empire espadazos The following takes place between 30,000 years ago and 540 AD. But that's a different story Japanese prehistory - the Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun periods PRE-Jōmon and Jomon In order to discuss the history of Japan, we must go back at least 30,000 years ago, when these islands were not like that, but were united into Asia due to the ice age. People started arriving in this place at least 30,000 years ago. The place was a huge tundra full of erupting volcanoes, but in that these early people of the Japanese Molo place and stayed there. "From here we will not move to anyone" People came to a new place, but 10,000 BC. the ice began to disappear and the place became an archipelago of the continent. The four largest islands that make it up are: Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. Some say that the mysterious remains of Yonaguni could have been created by an advanced civilization at that time, in 8000 BC, which saw rising sea levels eat everything. But... still being studied. "Do I hear it or not?" These primitive people lived in caves and hunted with their unreliable stone weapons and obsidian. Giant deer, elephants, tigers, bison, rhinos and panthers were their prey, but were eventually extinguished. They will always be fishing. After the end of the ice age before the Japs, it costs them to adapt to the fashion of agriculture and livestock and other territories. This Mesolithic transitional period is known as the Jomon period, referring to the pottery it began to develop here, perhaps the oldest in the world, characterized by rope signs. Over the centuries evolved into more elaborate and figurative ways, as you called the Great Dane. Perhaps the most striking is the Kamegaoka dogu. “Interesting, isn't it? It's not a man or a woman... It's everything you've seen before, don't like it. It is an advanced humanoid" The first settlements were built and 2000 BC. or so virtually all places were sedentary. Dry rice cultivation is believed to have begun at the end of this period, although this was not widespread. After all, hunting and gathering pulled out more. And the first cults. It seems that stone circles are made for their rituals, like those of Oyu, Akita Prefecture. The problem would arrive in the year 300 BC, when the Chinese were in full expansionism and threw the people from their land. Everything indicates that there are still some controversies, some Koreans decided to pack up and travel to the southern part of Japan and this would create the Yayoi period. Yayoi Period The Yaaya culture came to Japan, in particular the island of Kyushu, and they brought many achievements in various fields. New livestock and agricultural machinery such as wet rice cultivation, potter's wheel, bronze and iron metallurgy, spinning... As I said, there is a lot of controversy because it seems that many Japanese Koreans fuck their shoddy gave them quite a part of their culture and many myths have been invented to hide it, but... that's what it is. "It's... it's very bad" And then there is the question of the Ainu, another ethnic group inhabiting Hokkaido and still quite discriminatory today. They could be the ancient Jōmon or perhaps the people who arrived much earlier is not known well. The problem lies in the language. According to linguistic theories, the Ainu are an isolate language, unrelated to any other, while Korean and Japanese, as Altaic languages ​​originating from the Altaic Massif, separated was perfect. Which is not suitable for everyone with the Yayoi migration. Therefore, it is believed that the Japanese are getting from a different and much older Korean current dialect, but this is very difficult to understand. “But... what language do you speak here? I don't…” Also, it's hard to understand what happened during that time, but it seems certain that there is violence. sat down with fences and walls, weapons were built, such as spears and arrows, and perhaps even swords. In addition, it also highlights the famous bells dotak, they used to have gabados scenes of the daily lives of these people, and mirrors, ashtrays that are larger than anything else. Apparently small groups of Yayoi settled in the Kanto plain down, while mixing with the locals, while many of the Jomon remained in the north, and his acceptance of Yayi's progress would be the most backward. They began to form the first confederations of tribes in the south, and these Yayoi clans took over many of them to subjugate many of the rice field farmers. There have been no emperors so far, but legends speak of a founder or first emperor named Jimmu, a descendant of the goddess Amaterasu, who seized power in 660 BC. after he unified most of the country. Currently in Japan there is a holiday for him SOLICO. Behind him they come several emperors or even legendary leaders that there are no historical sources. Later we find Chinese chronicles, and it must be like a powerful war in the country of Wa or Japan. Maybe inside or maybe against the Korean kingdom between 150 and 300 AD. The winner would be a queen named Himiko, from an unknown realm or chiefdoms they call Yamatai. Curiously, the Raider reboot of the video game Tomb 2013 revolves around the queen and legend Yamatai. It's really fun. Some people associated with this queen consort was Empress Jing, who after the death of her husband, Emperor Chuai, reigned for 60 years, and conquered part of present-day Korea. The first emperor was considered the historical Ojin of his son, although they are said to have lived for 110 years. “We are a hoax. Don't deceive us to tell us the truth..." Kofun period From 300 to 700 we entered the Kofun period, the ancient grave period, because people began to bury people in gigantic burial mounds near cities, most of them in the shape of a keyhole and clay figurines , called Haniwa, representing from humans to horses. Mound Kofun over cucumber all is the son of Ojin, Nintok, who reigned until 400 in Yamato Province, now Nara in central Honshu. Who made these mounds? As new elites emerged to rule the place, the state was called Yamato, the educated nobility of Yai. This period is very important because that is where the foundations of the Japanese state come from. There were three classes in this political system. The Uji elite were like the Roman patricians in a way they thought they came from a mythical ancestor. At that time it would have been over 1000 clans, but there was one that stood above the rest: the Yamato clan. It was the most powerful because it was said to be descended from the great goddess Amaterasu of the Shinto pantheon. This goddess he built the famous Isu Shrine in Mie Prefecture and Izum. Among other ujis also, they had a little more energy than others. Kobetsu were closest to Emperor Uji, and shinbetsu were the most peripheral, as Sog could be. Each Uji is clustered in their own Kuni, i.e. territory they control and exploitation. The second class was B, the servants of the first, they did the typical tasks of the time. There were farmers, artisans, fishermen, potters... And finally, the third class was in Yatsuko, a kind of subordinate officials. They were accountants, scribes, administrators... and all without holidays or coffee with curasanes. "Fuck me, huh?" At that time, several independent Chinese kingdoms appeared on the Korean peninsula: Goguryeo, Silla, Baekje and Gaya. It was the last of which Japan had a Chinese script, which became a prestige script thanks to all the literary works that brought the Buddhists to the continent in the year 300. In gratitude, Yamato helped them fight the other two kingdoms by 391 and based the colony of Mimana on the Korean coast. By 540, the emperor of Japan was Kimmei, and in that year received their Korean allies, led by Rei Seong, in his palace. This episode was the most important gifts he brought. Buddha statue and some sutras. For a few days, Song had a grate for the poor emperor: "Buddhism mole eggs, uncle, come from India and these people are a rooster." beliefs, Shinto Ki and Buddhist, went syncretizing among the Japanese. And only religious beliefs did not mix. Also traditions, music and dance, like the music of Gagaku court or the kemari ball game, came out of the Chinese game of cuju. Among the various centers of power, they arose and the tension that made the Yamato Court may remove from the city of Nara Asuka Valley, south, around the year 540, where arts, religion and politics merged. "Siiiiii" Says that the moment we pass from the old Japanese prehistory period known as Asuka period that they put some in the Kofun period and others, besides being and Kofun as the Asuka Yamato period of the part.But come on, we can say, we are entering into old age.

Distribution and types

One of the earliest species of giant deer called Megaloceros obscurus existed in the Lower Pleistocene. It was a species from the line that led to the famous big-horned deer (lat. Megaloceros giganteus), which appeared about 400 thousand years ago and died out about 7600 years ago. Its remains are found from North Africa and Western Europe to Siberia and China. Numerous finds have been made in the peat bogs of Ireland and Germany. This probably shows that giant deer were also found in forest areas, and not only in the steppe, as is sometimes assumed. During the coldest periods, giant deer were absent in Europe. They finally disappeared from Europe about 11.5 thousand years ago and met for about three thousand years in Siberia. Giant deer never made it to North America. There their biological niche was occupied by the species Cervalces scotti, which was outwardly a kind of mixture of elk and wapiti and extinct even before the genus of giant deer.

According to the latest genetic analyzes, the closest modern relative of the giant deer is the European fallow deer, not the red deer. With the elk, giant deer, despite the similarity of the horns, are not closely related.

The habitat of a giant deer in Siberia is confirmed by a copy of its horns, given as a gift from Peter the Great to the Saxon king Augustus the Strong. Now these horns are placed in the center of the collection of hunting trophies in one of the halls of the Moritzburg hunting castle near Dresden.

Description

The most famous species of the genus of giant deer is the species Megaloceros giganteus, whose height at the withers was about two meters and corresponded to the size of modern elks. However, he was, however, lighter and had longer legs. Antlers, found only in males, were much larger than the antlers of all living deer. They reached a span of 3.6 m and were among the largest head growths ever possessed by ungulates. It is especially noteworthy that the giant deer shed these antlers every year and restored them again in a short period of time, as today's deer do. And yet, despite their name and the unique scale of their antlers, giant deer were not the largest deer of all time. Even modern moose, especially those found in Alaska, surpass them in weight, and some extinct species, such as the broad-fronted moose, which reached 1400 kg Cervalces latifrons, were much larger.

Because Megaloceros giganteus depicted in numerous cave and rock paintings of people from the era of the last glacial period, the researchers proceed from the fact that he played a big role in the hunting of primitive people. In most of the drawings, he is depicted with a dark brown back and a light chest, from which we can conclude that this was the real color of his coat. Some images show a sort of triangular hump-like structure in the area of ​​the shoulders. The skeleton of giant deer shows in this place, as in elk, individually varying extensions of the vertebrae, which more likely served as an additional support for the muscles that carry heavy antlers. Similar anatomical features were also Alces latifrons. It can be assumed that they lived in groups, like most of the living large

The bighorn or Irish deer is an extinct species belonging to the genus of giant deer, the deer family. Its habitat ranged from Ireland to the lands of North Asia and Africa, and it was also found in some parts of China. The Irish deer lived during the Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Description of the animal

Its appearance resembled the image of a modern fallow deer. It was one of the largest animals in the deer family. At the withers, the height of the giant reached 2.1 meters. Horns in scope were about 3.7 meters and weighed up to 40 kg. The upper part of the horns had a significant extension in the form of a shovel, directed upwards with a certain number of processes. The average weight of the animal was 540-600 kg. Prominent individuals big-horned deer had a mass of 700 kg or more.

The large-horned species shed its antlers every year and in a short time again grew them to an impressive size, like modern deer. The females of these animals did not have horns and could well live in the forest.

The big-horned deer was often present in the motifs of the cave paintings of ancient people. It can be assumed that the hunting of this beast was very important for the survival of human ancestors during the Ice Age. From the same drawings, one can see and the color of the animal, it had a dark brown back and light hair on the chest. The specimens found during the excavations had a triangular structure, like a hump, in the shoulder girdle. This structure is also characteristic of modern moose. The structure is an elongated vertebrae that serve as additional support for the muscles that support the weighty horns. The structure of the growth is individual for each individual.

There were also smaller forms of giant deer:

• Megaloceros cazioti, who lived in Sardinia and Corsica. Its height did not exceed one meter and the horns were much smaller.
• Megaloceros cretensis, which lived in Crete, did not exceed 60 cm in height. The horns of the animal were short and had a simple shape, with one or two branches, grew up to 15 cm.

habitats

giant beast did not master the territory of North America, the ancestor of the red deer lived there, similar in appearance to a mixture of wapiti and elk. These animals were close relatives of the maral and ceased to exist, long before the appearance of the genus of huge big-horned deer.

The close descendants in the genetic line for bighorn deer were European fallow deer, and not at all red deer, as one might assume. The resemblance to an elk is also based only on the similar shape of the horns, but has no genetic confirmation.

In Europe, the last representatives of the big-horned giants died out about 11.5 thousand years ago. The remains of the population were found on the territory of Siberia for another 3 thousand years.

Volumetric horns were deprived beast of the opportunity to live in the forest, so the main habitat of the Irish giant was wet meadows. On the territory of Siberia, the remains of 7700 years ago were excavated, which became the last find associated with this animal. Most of the skeletons of the bighorn deer were found in the swampy regions of Ireland, which gave another name to the horned giant. A significant collection containing the skeletons of bighorn deer has been donated to the Natural History Museum in Dublin.

The big-horned giant was still not the largest deer that lived on the planet. Some representatives of modern moose, living in Alaska, have more weight than the ancient deer. The extinct broad-browed species of elk Cervalces latifrons, whose mass reached 1400 kg, also significantly exceeded it in weight.

Possible causes of extinction

Given the prescription of the period of residence of the bighorn deer, it is quite difficult to determine the cause of their extinction with great accuracy, therefore, there are several possible scenarios in this matter:

On the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea, the remains of giants that lived on earth 7700 years ago were discovered. The horns of these individuals were significantly shorter than those found in Ireland. This confirms the occurrence of allometry within the species. Thus, small individuals in the population also had smaller horns, and bone formations did not undergo constant growth.