Image: Franco Atirador
Measuring 3.5 metres from tip to tip, the antlers of the extinct Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus) were the largest of any deer ever – but it is no longer completely clear why they grew to such an astonishing size.
About 50 years ago, influential biologist Stephen Jay Gould suggested a simple explanation for the Irish elk’s enormous headgear. He compared shoulder height and antler length across several species of “cervine” deer – a group including the Irish elk – and concluded that antler size and body size are closely linked. More specifically, Gould proposed that when deer evolve larger bodies, the antlers males grow evolve to be larger too, but at a faster rate. Biologists call this “positive allometry” and Gould said it predicted that the Irish elk, which stood 2 metres tall at the shoulder, should have 3.5-metre-wide antlers.
But Thomas Hansen at the University of Oslo in Norway and his colleagues say it isn’t quite that simple. Read more on newscientist.com…
