Fishermen Discover Massive 10,000-Year-Old “Irish Elk” Skull
Ardboe Galler/FacebookRaymond McElroy is pictured with the antlers and skull of an Irish elk, discovered in his net while fishing on Lough Neagh lake in Northern Ireland.
A fisherman and his assistant were out on the lakebed of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland on Sept. 5 when they reeled in the farthest thing from their usual catch — and subsequently made history news headlines.
Raymond McElroy and his assistant, Charlie Coyle, were shocked when they hooked a massive pair of elk antlers with its skull almost fully intact, making history news. As it turns out, their catch was not only unexpected but historic, as the ancient skull dates back over 10,500 years, according to LiveScience.
“I thought it was the devil himself. I was going to throw it back in,” Coyle told The Irish Times.
The skull and antlers once belonged to a now extinct ancient species known as the “Irish elk” (Megaloceros giganteus). The skull and antlers measure about 6 feet (or 1.8 meters) long, which gives a sense of just how large these creatures were when they once roamed the earth.
Ardboe Gallery/FacebookA closeup of the Irish elk skull with its jaw missing but antlers fully intact.
Indeed, Irish elk were one of the largest species of deer to ever exist and they’ve been extinct for nearly 10,000 years.
Their “Irish elk” name comes from the fact that the remains of these creatures are most commonly found in the lakes and bogs of Ireland — more often than in other parts of the world.
According to Mike Simms, a paleontologist at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, these deer were once able to live in the Irish grass plains when the weather and environment suited them.
But when forests began to grow, their massive antlers didn’t allow them to navigate as easily as they did when the roamed the open plains. Simms said that “giant antlers aren’t great in the forest,” and ultimately, “Environmental change is what caused their extinction.”
