Massive Irish Elk Survived the Mass Extinction of the Last Ice Age

It turns out that giant deer were still present in Britain at the end of the last Ice Age. While many animal species became extinct, the giant deer, or Irish elk, was still around during that time period.

Researchers still don't the precise reasons for the extinction of so many species; it probably took place due to a combination of climate change and hunting by humans. However, some species of animals survived the end of the last glacial period somewhat longer than others. These include the giant deer, which populated huge areas of Eurasia during the Ice Age.

These deer could weigh as much as 1.5 tons and lived during the time of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros and cave bears. They finally disappeared about 7,000 years ago.

Now, though, researchers have managed to isolate mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) from deer bones found in the Swabian Alb that are 12,000 years old. This sheds light on how prevalent these animals were in southern Germany.

The deer bones were found in the Hohle Fels. While it was widely accepted that this species went extinct after the climax of the last Ice Age about 20,000 years ago, scientists have discovered otherwise. Reconstruction of the mtDNA and genetic analysis of the DNA revealed that the bones were from the giant deer, and that they went extinct far later than expected.

"Prior to the last Ice Age, there was a clear distinction in the isotope values for all three species; after this period, there is a clear overlap-and this suggests that the habitat of deer species had shrunk or there was an overlap in the diets of the different deer species," said Dorothee Drucker, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The scientists believe that the giant deer had to share their habitat and were little suited to life in Europe, which was becoming increasingly forested. Competition with species and additional hunting by humans probably eventually led to their extinction.

The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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