''Mammuthus lamarmorai'' is a species of dwarf
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
which lived during the late
Middle and
Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
(between 450,000 and perhaps 40,000 years ago) on the island of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
in the Mediterranean. It has been estimated to have had a shoulder height of around . Remains have been found across the western part of the island.
Description

''M. lamaromorai'' is only known from a small number of remains, including a fragmentary partial skeleton, and isolated finds of other bones.
Of the few known
molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat tooth, teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammal, mammals. They are used primarily to comminution, grind food during mastication, chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, '' ...
only one represents the rearmost tooth, which is 13 cm long and 6.9 cm wide, with at least eleven ridges on the enamel.
[Maria Rita Palombo: ''Elephants in miniature.'' In: Harald Meller (ed.): ''Elefantenreich – Eine Fossilwelt in Europa.'' Halle/Saale, 2010, pp. 275–295 ] The humerus reaches a length of .
The few discovered tusk fragments exhibit only a small maximum diameter of . The length of the femur indicates a shoulder height of .
Weight estimates have varied considerably, from to .
The small size of ''M. lamarmorai'' is attributed to
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 occurred when its larger ancestors reached Sardinia, reducing their size due to lack of potential predators and reduced food supply.
[Maria Rita Palombo: ''Endemic elephants of the Mediterranean Islands: knowledge, problems and perspectives.'' In: G. Cavarretta, P. Gioia, M. Mussi and Maria Rita Palombo (eds.): ''The World of Elephants – International Congress. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.'' Rome, 2001, pp. 486–491][Lucia Caloi, Tassos Kotsakis, Maria R. Palombo und Carmelo Petronio: ''The Pleistocene dwarf elephants from Mediterranean islands.'' In: Jeheskel Shoshani and Pascal Tassy (eds.): ''The Proboscidea. Evolution and palaeoecology of the Elephants and their relatives.'' Oxford, New York, Tokyo, 1996, pp. 234–239]
Discovery

The
holotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
specimen of ''M. lamarmorai'' is a partial skeleton collected during the late 19th century from Guardia Pisano Hill near
Gonnesa
Gonnesa is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italy, Italian region Sardinia, located about west of Cagliari and about northwest of Carbonia, Italy, Carbonia, in the Iglesiente subregion.
The town was refounded ...
in southwest Sardinia, which was being excavated as a result of railway construction''.''
Most finds of ''M. lamarmorai'' were discovered on the west coast and in the western part of the island of Sardinia, and mainly comprise individual finds, but also belong to associated skeletal elements. The most important fossils are from Funtana Morimenta, a quarry south-southwest of
Gonnesa
Gonnesa is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italy, Italian region Sardinia, located about west of Cagliari and about northwest of Carbonia, Italy, Carbonia, in the Iglesiente subregion.
The town was refounded ...
in the valley of Rio Morimenta where it had already been discovered at the end of the 19th century. These fossils embedded in the Funtana-Morimenta lineup, which is composed of aeolian sedimentary formation that is located below a layer of strata dominated by a rock unit of conglomerates (the
Tyrrhenian conglomerate). This rock formation is widely spread all over the west coast of Sardinia and is generally attributed to the last
interglacial period that bears in northern Alpine region the term
Eemian
The Last Interglacial, also known as the Eemian, was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period. It cor ...
(126000–115000 years ago). The finds include mainly elements of the spine and musculoskeletal system, so among other things, a full foot, nearly complete hand, humerus and ulna, as well as remains of tusks. All discoveries are most likely to belong to a single individual. Other finds are known from
San Giovanni di Sinis near
Oristano
Oristano (; ) is an Italian city and (municipality), the capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the provincial ...
, where a molar tooth was found in also deposited before the Eemian sediments, as well as an additional molar from Campu Giavesu in
Sassari
Sassari ( ; ; ; ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 120,497 inhabitants as of 2025, and a functional urban area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains ...
, which is, however, significantly larger. Finds from the Upper Pleistocene, which comprise a plurality of teeth, are mainly from Tramariglio near the city of
Alghero
Alghero (; ; ; ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian province of Sassari in the north west of the island of Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ''Aleguerium'', which is a mediaeval Latin word m ...
.They also came from sediments deposited by wind, but these come from above the Tyrrhenian conglomerate.
Classification
As a mammoth, ''M. lamarmorais closest living relative is the modern
Asian elephant
The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...
(''Elephas maximus''). The occurrence of this mammoth in the late Middle Pleistocene makes descent from the
woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived from the Middle Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African ...
(''M. primigenius'') rather unlikely, since the latter species first appeared in Europe during the Upper Pleistocene. Rather, it is thought that the
steppe mammoth (''M. trogontherii''), which lived on the continent, is the likely ancestor of ''M. lamarmorai''. The steppe mammoth's molars possess only eleven ridges, a feature much more archaic than those of the woolly mammoth, which had twenty six ridges. The Cretan pygmy mammoth (''
M. creticus'') and ''M. lamarmorai'' are the only known dwarf mammoths on the islands of the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
, which were otherwise occupied by diminutive members of the genus ''
Palaeoloxodon
''Palaeoloxodon'' is an extinct genus of elephant. The genus originated in Africa during the Early Pleistocene, and expanded into Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The genus contains the largest known species of elephants, with ...
'' (also included sometimes in ''Elephas'').
The remains from Guardia Pisano Hill were initially attributed by Luigi Acconci in 1881 to ''
Elephas melitensis.
'' The first proper description was published in 1883 by
Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major, who used the name ''Elephas lamarmorae''. He saw a clear link to the Southern mammoth (''M. meridionalis''), which he in turn called ''Elephas meridionalis'' due to similarities. The remains were from the quarry Funtana Morimenta and are now kept in the
Natural History Museum of Basel, where Major personally studied them. Because of new tooth finds since the mid-20th century, its close connection to mammoths became clear, allowing the name ''Mammuthus lamarmorae'' to prevail.
[Maria Rita Palombo, M. P. Ferretti, G. L. Pillola and L. Chiappini: '' A reappraisal of the dwarfed mammoth Mammuthus lamarmorai (Major, 1883) from Gonnesa (south-western Sardinia, Italy).'' Quaternary International 255, 2012, pp. 158–170][R. Melis, Maria Rita Palombo und M. Mussi: ''Mammuthus lamarmorae (Major, 1883) remains in the pre-Tyrrhenian deposits of San Giovanni in Sinis (Western Sardinia, Italy).'' In: G. Cavarretta, P. Gioia, M. Mussi and Maria Rita Palombo (eds.): ''The World of Elephants – International Congress. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.'' Rom, 2001, pp. 481–485] As a result of adaptation to the
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted Convention (norm), convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific name, scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the I ...
, the name was amended to ''Mammuthus lamarmorai'', which is currently the valid species name. The species name, ''lamarmorai'', honors to the Sardinian General and naturalist
Alberto La Marmora (1789–1863), who had already in 1858 investigated the fossils of Funtana Morimenta.
Chronology
The origin of ''M. lamarmorai'' is still relatively unclear – the earliest finds date from the latter part of the Middle Pleistocene, and it is thought that they colonised the island sometime after 450,000 years ago. This colonisation likely occurred during a glacial period in which the global sea level was much lower due to the continental ice sheets and the animals could reach the island by swimming.
A securely dated tusk-remnant found in sandstone near Alghero is thought to date to around 100,000 years ago, during the early Late Pleistocene. A partial tibia likely referrable to the species found near Alghero in NW Sardinia has been suggested to date to
MIS 3-4, around 57-29,000 years
Before Present
Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because ...
, though the bones were found out of stratigraphic context, and the date is based on correlation between the matrix surrounding the bones and the beach deposits.
Paleoenvironment
During the Middle-Late Pleistocene Corsica and Sardinia had their own highly
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
depauperate terrestrial mammal fauna which besides ''M. lamarmorai'' included the Tyrrhenian field rat, (''
Rhagamys orthodon'') the Tyrrhenian vole (''
Microtus henseli''), the
Sardinian pika
The Sardinian pika (''Prolagus sardus'') is an extinct species of lagomorph that was endemic to the islands of Sardinia, Corsica and neighbouring Mediterranean islands until its extinction likely in Roman times. It was the last surviving member o ...
(''Prolagus sardus''), a shrew (''
Asoriculus similis''), a mole (''
Talpa tyrrhenica''), the
Sardinian dhole (''Cynotherium sardous''), a
galictine mustelid
The Mustelidae (; from Latin , weasel) are a diverse family of carnivoran mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, polecats, martens, grisons, and wolverines. Otherwise known as mustelids (), they form the largest family in the suborde ...
(''
Enhydrictis galictoides''), three species of
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
(''
Algarolutra majori,
Sardolutra ichnusae,
Megalenhydris barbaricina'') and a
deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
(''
Praemegaceros cazioti'').
See also
* ''
Mammuthus exilis
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
'', a dwarf mammoth species known from the Channel Islands of California
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1157559
Pleistocene proboscideans
Extinct mammals of Europe
Mammoths
Fauna of Sardinia
Taxa named by Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major