25 Megaceros ‘hibernicus’ (doe)

3D Model

This sculpture of a female forms part of a group with two males of the species.

The species is now known as Megaloceros giganteus (‘big horned giant’). The common name is ‘Giant Deer’ or ‘Irish Elk’ because many of the best-preserved fossil specimens have been found in Irish lakes and peat bogs. However, it inhabited much of Europe and central Asia during the Ice Ages from 400,000 to 8,000 years ago. It was the warmer conditions at the end of the last Ice Age, perhaps exacerbated by human predation, that led to its demise.

The reclining female lacks the antlers of the males standing close by. The family group is completed by what is apparently a fawn but is probably a misplaced sculpture of a much earlier species of mammal (one of the ‘Anoplotheres’).

Model by HE Geospatial Survey Team ©Historic England