Cervalces scotti, the Stag-Moose By WillemSvdMerwe Watch

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Here's something I wish I could have seen for real - Cervalces scotti, the Stag-moose! This huge deer (comparable to the living moose) lived in quite recent times (perhaps extinct about 10 000 years ago) in North America. It didn't have the largest antlers of all - those belonged to the giant deer or so-called Irish Elk, which I'll also try to reconstruct here soon (but most of you will have seen reconstructions of that one) - but in my book it had the weirdest and most complex antlers! Actually there seems to have been quite a bit of individual variation in these antlers, but I based my reconstruction on one particular skull with splendid antlers. This great deer seems to have been a bit intermediate between 'regular' deer and mooses, having a snout somewhat elongated, but not as much as the living moose, as well as fairly long legs, though it probably was not quite as tall as the moose. It's not known why this species became extinct ... it doesn't seem to have been hunted much. Watercolour.

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Published : Apr 17, 2016