The remains of a prehistoric dwarf elephant of the species Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis were discovered at White Fountainsin the province of Syracuse. To announce the discovery Fabio Brancageologist at the University of Catania. This is a paleontological discovery of considerable importance, which further enriches our panorama of knowledge on the fauna of prehistoric Sicily, especially in an area of Sicily – that of the Iblei Mountains – already of considerable geological and landscape interest.
The species Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis she lived in Sicily and Malta between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. The dwarf elephants that populated prehistoric Sicily and other Mediterranean islands are very well known: these are extinct species much smaller than the current African and Asian elephants, among which the most famous is the Palaeloxodon falconeriprecisely because of its very small size, just 90 cm at the withers.
The species object of the discovery in the Syracuse area, Palaeloxodon mnaidriensishas a height at the withers that is around around 180 cmand like other Mediterranean dwarf elephant species, probably descended from Palaeoloxodon antiquusknown as the “straight-tusked elephant”, a large species related to the modern ones African elephants (Loxodonta Africana) whose height was approx 4 m.
Most likely, the ancestors of dwarf elephants reached the Mediterranean islands (Sicily, Malta, but also Cyprus, Crete, and other Aegean islands) during the glacial peaks Gunz (500,000 years ago) e Res (200,000 years ago), when the water level was much lower than today. Following the end of the glaciations and al rise in sea levelthe groups of Palaeloxodon antiquus who lived on the islands gradually remained cut off by the species that lived on the continent, and over the thousands of years of insulationthey adopted different evolutionary solutionsas in the case of “insular dwarfism“.
