Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis
The largest antlers of any known deer species belonged to the extinct giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. It has been argued that their antlers were too large for use in fighting, instead being used only in ritualized displays to attract mates. Here, we used finite-element analysis to test whether the...
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The Royal Society Publishing
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ftunivnewengland:oai:rune.une.edu.au:1959.11/30565 2023-08-27T04:03:42+02:00 Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis Klinkhamer, Ada J School of Environmental and Rural Science Woodley, Nicholas Neenan, James M Parr, William C H Clausen, Philip Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R Sansalone, Gabriele orcid:0000-0003-3680-8418 Lister, Adrian M Wroe, Stephen orcid:0000-0002-6365-5915 2019-10-09 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30565 en eng The Royal Society Publishing 10.1098/rspb.2019.1873 ARC/DP140102656 ARC/DP140102659 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30565 une:1959.11/30565 Biological Adaptation Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) Journal Article 2019 ftunivnewengland 2023-08-10T19:19:04Z The largest antlers of any known deer species belonged to the extinct giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. It has been argued that their antlers were too large for use in fighting, instead being used only in ritualized displays to attract mates. Here, we used finite-element analysis to test whether the antlers of M. giganteus could have withstood forces generated during fighting. We compared the mechanical performance of antlers in M. giganteus with three extant deer species: red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama) and elk (Alces alces). Von Mises stress results suggest that M. giganteus was capable of withstanding some fighting loads, provided that their antlers interlocked proximally, and that their antlers were best adapted for withstanding loads from twisting rather than pushing actions, as are other deer with palmate antlers. We conclude that fighting in M. giganteus was probably more constrained and predictable than in extant deer. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Research UNE - University of New England at Armidale, NSW Australia Giganteus ENVELOPE(62.500,62.500,-67.567,-67.567) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Research UNE - University of New England at Armidale, NSW Australia |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnewengland |
language |
English |
topic |
Biological Adaptation Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) |
spellingShingle |
Biological Adaptation Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) Klinkhamer, Ada J School of Environmental and Rural Science Woodley, Nicholas Neenan, James M Parr, William C H Clausen, Philip Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R Sansalone, Gabriele orcid:0000-0003-3680-8418 Lister, Adrian M Wroe, Stephen orcid:0000-0002-6365-5915 Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
topic_facet |
Biological Adaptation Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) |
description |
The largest antlers of any known deer species belonged to the extinct giant deer Megaloceros giganteus. It has been argued that their antlers were too large for use in fighting, instead being used only in ritualized displays to attract mates. Here, we used finite-element analysis to test whether the antlers of M. giganteus could have withstood forces generated during fighting. We compared the mechanical performance of antlers in M. giganteus with three extant deer species: red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama) and elk (Alces alces). Von Mises stress results suggest that M. giganteus was capable of withstanding some fighting loads, provided that their antlers interlocked proximally, and that their antlers were best adapted for withstanding loads from twisting rather than pushing actions, as are other deer with palmate antlers. We conclude that fighting in M. giganteus was probably more constrained and predictable than in extant deer. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Klinkhamer, Ada J School of Environmental and Rural Science Woodley, Nicholas Neenan, James M Parr, William C H Clausen, Philip Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R Sansalone, Gabriele orcid:0000-0003-3680-8418 Lister, Adrian M Wroe, Stephen orcid:0000-0002-6365-5915 |
author_facet |
Klinkhamer, Ada J School of Environmental and Rural Science Woodley, Nicholas Neenan, James M Parr, William C H Clausen, Philip Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R Sansalone, Gabriele orcid:0000-0003-3680-8418 Lister, Adrian M Wroe, Stephen orcid:0000-0002-6365-5915 |
author_sort |
Klinkhamer, Ada J |
title |
Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
title_short |
Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
title_full |
Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
title_fullStr |
Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in Megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
title_sort |
head to head: the case for fighting behaviour in megaloceros giganteus using finite-element analysis |
publisher |
The Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30565 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(62.500,62.500,-67.567,-67.567) |
geographic |
Giganteus |
geographic_facet |
Giganteus |
genre |
Alces alces |
genre_facet |
Alces alces |
op_relation |
10.1098/rspb.2019.1873 ARC/DP140102656 ARC/DP140102659 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30565 une:1959.11/30565 |
_version_ |
1775357390088044544 |