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Cervalces latifrons

Cervalces latifrons
Alces latifrons.JPG
Pair of antlers from the Geological-Paleontological Museum, Aalen
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Tribe: Capreolini
Genus: Cervalces
Species: C. latifrons
Binomial name
Cervalces latifrons
Johnson, 1874

Cervalces latifrons, the broad-fronted moose, was a large, moose-like deer of the holarctic regions of Europe and Asia dating from the epoch. It is believed to be the largest species of deer that ever existed and is known only from its fossil remains. It was a species of the genus Cervalces.

Cervalces latifrons was first described by Mr Randall Johnson in 1874. A frontal bone attached to part of an antler of a previously unknown species of deer was found at low tide on the beachfront at Happisburgh, Norfolk, in the "Forest Bed". Johnson, who retained the specimen in his collection, named it Cervus latifrons,Cervus being the only genus of deer known at that time. The specific name "latifrons" refers to the wide frontal bone of this large species. The morphology of the animal as deduced from this fossil and from others later found in this formation and on the Continent differs little from modern moose. It was later placed in the genus Cervalces which it shares with the also extinct Cervalces scotti from North America. The antlers of the males had short beams and large palmate lobes with up to ten large points. They were probably for display purposes to impress the female rather than for fighting because these moose are believed to have roamed as solitary individuals. Cervalces latifrons is probably the largest species of deer that has ever existed, with a shoulder height of 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in). It was about the same size as the American bison (Bison bison) and weighed about twice as much as the Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus) but the span of its antlers at 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) was smaller than that of the elk.

Fossil remains of this deer are known from northern Europe and Asia but have not been found in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy south of the Apennines, Croatia or Greece. In the United Kingdom, it is known only from the Cromer Forest Bed Formation. This is exposed at intervals along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk and forms low cliffs between Cromer and Great Yarmouth. The holotype came from here. It is believed that Cervalces latifrons resembled its modern moose relations and lived in tundra, steppes, coniferous forests and swamps. It probably avoided deciduous forests because of the inconvenience that would be caused by its wide horns when moving among bushes and saplings. Like its living relatives, it is likely to have lived a solitary life. It is believed to have fed on rough herbage and plants growing around lakes and swamps. Further remains of Cervalces latifrons have been recovered from Sénèze (Haute-Loire, France), Mauer (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), Bilshausen (Niedersachsen, Germany), Mosbach (Hessen, Germany), Süßenborn (Thüringen, Germany), Ranica (Lombardy, Italy), Leffe (Lombardy, Italy) and Crostolo Creek (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) and extensively from Siberia.


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