In the extended family of prehistoric creatures, some guys looked frightening. Let's not talk about the saber-toothed tiger's huge canine teeth up to 20 centimeters long, let's talk about the big horned deer, this big guy is topped with two "unparalleled" horns, and it is just for courtship. Modern deer animals see this old ancestor and can only bow their heads and obey.
In the 17th century, Europeans had discovered the huge double horns left by the bighorn deer, which were once confusing, because according to the size of the horns of modern deer, this should be a prehistoric behemoth weighing only a few tons. The German biologist Blumenbach, although he did not know the size of the deer, directly named it the bighorn deer. The bighorn deer is indeed the largest member of the deer family.
Before the end of the last glacier of the Pleistocene, the bighorn deer was widely distributed in northern Eurasia. The history of the birth of the bighorn deer can be traced back to 800,000 years ago, and the time of extinction is only 7700 years ago, and it can be said that the bighorn deer disappeared from the earth before the dawn of human civilization. Fossilized skeletons of the bighorn deer, mainly found on the island of Ireland. The bighorn deer has also become one of ireland's symbols, the most famous archaic creature on this ancient island. Its pair of giant horns can reach a width of 4 meters and weigh about 45 kilograms, which means that the male bighorn deer has to forage around with a pair of such things every day, which will cause considerable pressure on the cervical spine.
Comparable to the huge double horns, there is also the size of the bighorn deer itself. The bighorn deer can reach a body length of 3 meters, its shoulder height is higher than the height of humans, 2.1 meters, and the maximum weight can reach 700 kg. This may be the pinnacle of the prehistoric deer family. The moose living in Modern North America weighs nearly 1 ton at its maximum.
With this unprecedented pair of horns, the bighorn deer is enough to impress people. Modern scientists have found that giant horns are not suitable for combat, but rather as weapons to attract the opposite sex. Whoever has the greater horn is likely to find a spouse and reproduce his own offspring. The result of this competition is that the horns on the head of the bighorn deer are getting bigger and bigger.
Of course, in order to support the pair of giant horns, the bighorn deer has also evolved a strong enough body and muscle strength, otherwise the pair of giant horns will really become a burden. Bighorn deer naturally can't escape human hunting, but the real reason for the extinction of bighorn deer may be climate change.
After the end of the last Pleistocene ice age, the Earth's temperature began to rise, grasslands began to be replaced by forests, and giant horned deer could not feed in the forest because their double horns were really an obstacle. As summer began to become short,the breeding season for bighorn deer also faced a crisis and eventually disappeared from the face of the earth.
What do you think?