Deer

Deer(Greek elephos) are apparently not mentioned in his Atlantis narrative, however, he does refer to elephants (elephas). Jürgen Spanuth, who advocated a North-West Europe location for Atlantis was unable to satisfactorily reconcile his Helgoland location with Plato’s elephants. Now another German researcher, Eckart Kahlhofer, has offered a simple explanation, namely that a transcription error led to the Greek word for elephant (elephas) being mistaken for their word for deer (elephos). However, as Atlantis story originated in Egypt,  what may be more relevant is the fact that the Egyptian hieroglyphics for deer (seshau) and elephant (abu) are so totally different that confusion between the two is not possible.

The elk was the largest species of deer in Northern Europe and is still found in Scandinavia. The Great Irish Deer which died out around 5500 BC was 10 feet (3 metres) tall and had an antler span of 11 feet.