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Irish elk survived after ice age ended.


New fossil finds indicate that the Irish elk Irish elk: see elk.
Irish elk

Any member of a genus (Megaloceros) of extinct giant deer commonly found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits (1.8 million–10,000 years ago) in Europe and Asia.
, previously thought to have gone extinct at the end of the last ice age, survived in some spots for several millennia more.

Megaloceros giganteus actually was a giant deer that stood more than 2.1 meters high at the shoulder, about the size of today's bull moose Bull Moose
n.
A member or supporter of the U.S. Progressive Party founded to support the presidential candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.



[From the party's emblem.]
. Antlers antlers

metaphorical decoration for deceived husband. [Western Folklore: Jobes, 395]

See : Cuckoldry
 sported by male Irish elk spanned up to about 3.6 meters (almost 12 feet) and weighed about 40 kilograms (88 pounds), says Anthony J. Stuart of University College London “UCL” redirects here. For other uses, see UCL (disambiguation).
University College London, commonly known as UCL, is the oldest multi-faculty constituent college of the University of London, one of the two original founding colleges, and the first British
.

Ecological changes drove Irish elk from central and western Europe Western Europe

The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO).
 at the height of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago but the creatures recolonized the continent and the British Isles about 14,500 years ago.

The youngest Irish elk fossils found in Europe--ones previously thought to mark the species' extinction--date to around 12,000 years ago. That's also about when the last ice age was ending. Many scientists have suggested that-factors such as ecological change, virulent disease, and hunting by people wiped out many large mammal species at that time.

Now, fossils found at two sites in western Siberia reveal that the Irish elk survived there at least until 7,650 years ago. Carbondating tests performed by scientists at two laboratories verify those ages.

Stuart and his colleagues describe their analysis in the Oct. 7 Nature.
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Title Annotation:Paleontology
Publication:Science News
Article Type:Brief Article
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Nov 6, 2004
Words:225
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