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Two lucky fishermen from the north of Ireland shot this skull with huge woods, six feet long. The extraordinary specimen belonged to the great momentum, which has not been seen in Ireland for more than 10,000 years, reports Belfast Live.
Raymond McElroy and Charlie Coyle fished for pollan (a white fish from Ireland) at Lough Neagh, a freshwater lake in Northern Ireland. According to Belfast Live, they fished in an area called the thorns when they fell on the skull and the remarkable woods that were caught in their fishing net.
"He arrived in the net on the side of the boat. I thought it was a bit of black oak to start, "McElroy told Belfast Live. "I was shocked at first when I got him overboard and saw the skull and the antlers. It's pretty good. "
Yeah, good enough. I would choose a different adjective, which I will not reproduce here, but these woods are absolutely great, especially given the time spent at the bottom of a lake. McElroy and Coyle made the discovery on September 5th.
The remains, dredged to a depth of 20 feet (6 meters), belonged to an extinct species known as the great moose (Megaloceros giganteus), sometimes called Irish Elk. According to LiveScience, the almost intact skull, with its wood still attached, is 6 feet (1.8 meters) wide. The skull and antlers have not been dated, but these majestic animals – the largest deer species that has ever existed – have disappeared from Ireland 10,500 to 11,000 years ago. Great elk also existed in Eurasia, the last of which disappeared from Siberia between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Four years ago, a long jaw of great momentum was extracted from Lough Neagh at about the same place, which led McElroy to think that he belonged to the same deer as this skull and these wood. The remains of these animals, most of which have been found in Ireland, are often exhumed in peat bogs and lakes.
The big moose were really impressive: they were about 2 meters (7 feet) high and the males had woods 10 feet wide. These woods were probably the result of sexual selection because they were not suitable for men's combat. According to the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, these woods have probably intimidated rivals and attracted women. Massive woods were a considerable burden for the males of the big elk; sitting at the top of their heads, the woods weighed more than 60 to 90 pounds (28 to 40 kg).
Speaking in front of Belfast Live, the Ulster Museum's scientist, Mike Simms, said that environmental changes have probably caused the extinction of this species. By the end of the Pleistocene, the grasslands of Ireland, on which the Great Wapiti had flourished for thousands of years, had become forests. This shocked the big momentum, which could not adapt. A 2008 study by researchers at the University of Florida concluded that these environmental changes halved the reproductive output of elk.
The skull and the woods are currently stored in McElroy's garage until local authorities decide what to do with them. I hope that they will exhibit the specimen in a local museum.
[Belfast Live via LiveScience]Source link
