Megaloceros, popularly known as the Irish Elk has been misnamed for the species is neither elk nor Irish. This is the name of an extinct deer species, the largest ever. The Irish Elk was as tall as seven feet up till its shoulder and its antlers were spread up to twelve feet. The evolution of this giant deer species took place in the glacial periods while the Pleistocene Epoch was on. The species became extinct because it failed to adapt to the subarctic conditions that existed in the final glaciations or the marked change that took place post the retreat of the sheet of ice. The last deer of the species died almost 11,000 years ago in Ireland.