Long-term tolerators of this column’s ramblings may recall that last year I sang the praises of my favourite item in the Manx Museum - the Great Elk.

The big bony beast discovered in a marl pit in 1897 is quite magnificent and the only example of its type on the island. Until recently.

As with so many popular spectacles these days, the skeleton now has a sequel. A landslip at Kirk Michael beach exposed the bones of another prehistoric elk.

You wouldn’t have though that coastal erosion could have an upside, would you?

Manx Great Elks are clearly like buses - you wait millennia for one to turn up and then two arrive within 121 years of each other.

The latest discovery, (who I’ll call Elk 2 in the absence of a more imaginative nickname) has been moved from the protective clay at the beach to the expert care of Manx National Heritage.

I like to imagine a gleaming laboratory full of lab-coated brilliant types, painstakingly easing away the silt of centuries, learning about our cloven-hooved predecessors who lived on the island before it was even an island.

When the academic work has been completed, Elk 2 would be a welcome addition to the public displays at one of the heritage sites around the island.

Many people would be keen to view the brand new ancient giant.

Of course, if Jurassic Park was based on scientific truth (and I still recall the heart-rending day I had it explained to me that it isn’t), then we’d have an absolute smash hit on our hands.

Extract some DNA from Elk 1 or Elk 2, do a bit of Spielbergish jiggery-pokery and we’d catapult the species out of extinction and into the here and now.

Visitors would flock to see er.... flocks of these awe-inspiring animals grazing on our hills and frolicking in our bicycle lanes.

With elks being placid herbivores, there’s also far less chance of any Tyrannosaurus Rex-type bloodthirsty rampages.

They might get a bit frisky around salad bars, but that would be it.

As science currently stands, my plans for Elk Park are a tad unrealistic, but give it time and perhaps it could happen.

The only other concern would be a budgetary one.

Opening a major tourist attraction based on the DNA of a pair of elks might be rejected as being too dear.

Too. Dear.

I’ll get my coat...