Weird Anatomy

  One of the incredible suspended taxidermy displays at the Museo delle Scienze (MUSE), showing two male Central European or common red deer ( Cervus elaphus hippelaphus ) entangled in combat. In some rare instances interlocked males can no longer separate, and they usually both die. As promised in the previous post , here's more on deer and why they're so fascinating. For how mundane we may find them, deer (family Cervidae) are actually some of the weirdest mammals you can think of, for a variety of reasons, which include laryngeal modifications to enhance their calls during rut, ancient hybridizations, bipedal walking, carnivoran-like aggressive posturing and roaring, and much more (if you want to know more on this stuff, as you should, Darren Naish has previously blogged on all this here , here and here ). But what deer are most renowned for, and arguably their weirdest specialization, is their headgear: instead of just evolving horns (keratinous structures with a bony core...

The moose ( Alces alces ) is quite an incredible beast. Me being absolutely flabbergasted by the sheer size of a European moose displayed at the Turin Museum of Natural History. But just how big can moose get? It’s a survivor of the Last Glacial Maximum, and while the European moose ( A. a. alces ) currently ranges in northern and eastern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Baltic States, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine) and Poland, with some vagrant individuals in Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia and some isolated populations in Austria, Germany and Czech Republic, subfossil remains have also been found as far south as Spain, the UK, Switzerland and Italy. The species has progressively restricted its range up to historical times, mainly due to habitat destruction and overhunting (Niedziałkowska et al. 2024). It’s the largest modern deer (Cervidae), with the probable largest individual being estimated at 816 kg, and with unconfirmed reports of individuals exceeding a ton (Wood 1976, 19...