''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'', the Cyprus dwarf elephant, is an extinct species that inhabited the island of Cyprus during the Late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. Remains comprise 44 molars, found in the north of the island, seven molars discovered in the south-east, a single measurable femur and a single tusk among very sparse additional bone and tusk fragments. The molars support derivation from the large

straight-tusked elephant The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...

''(Palaeoloxodon antiquus''), that inhabited Europe since 780,000 years ago. The species is presumably derived from the older, larger ''P. xylophagou'' from the late Middle Pleistocene which reached the island presumably during a Pleistocene glacial maximum when low sea levels allowed a low probability sea crossing between Cyprus and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. During subsequent periods of isolation the population adapted within the evolutionary mechanisms of

insular dwarfism Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is disti ...

, which the available sequence of molar fossils confirms to a certain extent. The fully developed ''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'' weighed not more than and had a height of around . The species became extinct around 12,000 years ago, around the time humans first colonised Cyprus.

Chronology

The Cyprus dwarf elephant is known from fossils dating from the Latest Pleistocene to earliest Holocene, approximately 11,000 BC. It is suggested that ''P. cypriotes'' is descended from ''Palaeoloxodon xylophagou,'' a species which is known from a partial skull collected near the village of

Xylofagou Xylofagou ( el, Ξυλοφάγου []) is a sprawling Greek-Cypriot village situated close to the A3 motorway (Cyprus), A3 Motorway between Dhekelia Cantonment, Dhekelia (Larnaca) and Paralimni / Agia Napa. It lies on the northern flank of a hill, ...

in SE Cyprus dating to the late

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, widely known by its previous designation of Middle Pleistocene, is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. Th ...

(

MIS MIS or mis may refer to: Science and technology * Management information system * Marine isotope stage, stages of the Earth's climate * Maximal independent set, in graph theory * Metal-insulator-semiconductor, e.g., in MIS capacitor * Minimally i ...

7, 243-191,000 years ago), which is larger than ''P. cypriotes.'' Both species are considered to have descended from the very large ''

Palaeoloxodon antiquus The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have rea ...

'' (straight-tusked elephant) of mainland Europe and the Middle East. It is likely that they arrived in Cyprus by swimming the distance between the

Karpas Peninsula The Karpas Peninsula ( el, Καρπασία; tr, Karpaz), also known as the Karpass, Karpaz or Karpasia, is a long, finger-like peninsula that is one of the most prominent geographical features of the island of Cyprus. Its farthest extent is ...

and Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia during an episode of low sea level, which even considering additional exposed land area is 60 kilometers, further than the known swimming distance record for elelphants (48 kilometers). The youngest remains of ''P. cypriotes'' date to around 12,000 years before present.

Description

''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'' was around 1 metre tall, amongst the smallest known for dwarf elephants alongside the Sicillian ''

Palaeoloxodon falconeri ''Palaeoloxodon falconeri'', also known as the pygmy elephant, Maltese pygmy elephant, or Sicilian dwarf elephant, is an extinct Siculo- Maltese species of elephant that was derived from the straight-tusked elephant. It is amongst the smallest o ...

''. The estimated body weight of ''P. cypriotes'' is only 200 kilogrammes, a weight reduction of 98% from its ancestors which weighed about 10 tonnes. Their molars however were about 40% of the size of the mainland straight-tusked elephants' molars. The factors responsible for the dwarfing of island mammals are thought to include the reduction in available food, predation and competition.

Excavations

Remains of the first Cyprus Dwarf Elephant were discovered and documented by

Dorothea Bate Dorothea Minola Alice Bate FGS (8 November 1878 – 13 January 1951), also known as Dorothy Bate, was a Welsh palaeontologist and pioneer of archaeozoology. Her life's work was to find fossils of recently extinct mammals with a view to underst ...

in 1902. She found the fossilized bones of the elephant in a cave in the Kyrenia hills of Cyprus. The species is also known under its synonym ''Elephas cypriotes''. Finds of whole or partial skeletons of this elephant are very rare. The first recorded find was by Dorothea Bate in a cave in the

Kyrenia Kyrenia ( el, Κερύνεια ; tr, Girne ) is a city on the northern coast of Cyprus, noted for its historic harbour and castle. It is under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. While there is evidence showing that the wider region ...

hills of Cyprus in 1902, described in a paper for the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1903 and in a later paper for

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

in 1905."Further Note on the Remains of Elephas cypriotes from a Cave-Deposit in Cyprus"
by Dorothea M. A. Bate in ''

'', Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character, Vol. 197 (1905), pp. 347–360

Notes

References

* Davies, P., & Lister, A. M.
''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'', the dwarf elephant of Cyprus: size and scaling comparisons with ''P. falconeri'' (Sicily-Malta) and mainland ''P. antiquus''
in Cavarretta ''et al., op. cit.'' pp. 479–480 * Masseti, M.
Did endemic dwarf elephants survive on Mediterranean islands up to protohistorical times?
in Cavarretta, Gioia, Mussi & Palombo, ''La terra degli Elefanti, The World of Elephants'' (Rome, 2001) pp. 402–406 * Palombo, M. R.
Endemic elephants of the Mediterranean Islands: knowledge, problems and perspectives
in Cavarretta ''et al., op. cit.'' *

External links

Cranial evidence for the presence of a second endemic elephant species on Cyprus
{{Taxonbar, from=Q23764987 cypriotes Pleistocene mammals of Europe Pleistocene proboscideans Pleistocene first appearances Holocene extinctions Prehistoric Cyprus