Dwarf elephant

Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea which, through the process of allopatric speciation on islands, evolved much smaller body sizes (around 1.5-2.3 metres) in comparison with their immediate ancestors. Dwarf elephants are an example of insular dwarfism, the phenomenon whereby large terrestrial vertebrates (usually mammals) that colonize islands evolve dwarf forms, a phenomenon attributed to adaptation to resource-poor environments and selection for early maturation and reproduction. Some modern populations of Asian elephants have also undergone size reduction on islands to a lesser degree, resulting in populations of pygmy elephants.
Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta (at Ghar Dalam), Crete (in Chania at Vamos, Stylos and in a now under water cave on the coast), Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands. Other islands where dwarf stegodon have been found are Sulawesi, Flores, Timor, other islands of the Lesser Sundas and Central Java, all islands are in Indonesia. The Channel Islands of California once supported a dwarf species descended from Columbian mammoths,[1] while small races of woolly mammoths were once found on Saint Paul Island; the mammoths on Wrangel island are no longer considered dwarfs.
Category:Animals
Category:Creatures
Category:Prehistoric elephants
Category:Holocene extinctions
Category:History of Sardinia
Category:History of Sicily
Category:Maltese prehistory
Category:Prehistoric Crete
Category:Prehistoric Cyprus
Category:Cyclades
Category:Dodecanese