Dwarf Elephant Facts and Figures

Dwarf Elephant Facts and Figures Name: Dwarf Elephant; genus names include Mammuthus, Elephas, and Stegodon. Habitat: Small islands of the Mediterranean Sea Historical Epoch: Pleistocene-Modern (2 million-10,000 years ago) Size and Weight: About six feet long and 500 pounds Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Small size; long tusks About the Dwarf Elephant Few prehistoric mammals have been as baffling to paleontologists as the Dwarf Elephant, which didnt comprise just one genus of prehistoric elephant, but several: the various Dwarf Elephants that lived on various Mediterranean islands during the Pleistocene epoch were made up of stunted populations of Mammuthus (the genus that includes the Woolly Mammoth), Elephas (the genus that includes modern elephants), and Stegodon (an obscure genus that seems to have been an offshoot of Mammut, aka the Mastodon). Further complicating matters, its possible that these elephants were capable of interbreedingmeaning the Dwarf Elephants of Cyprus may have been 50 percent Mammuthus and 50 percent Stegodon, while those of Malta were a unique blend of all three genera. While the evolutionary relationships of Dwarf Elephants are a matter of dispute, the phenomenon of insular dwarfism is well understood. As soon as the first full-sized prehistoric elephants arrived on, lets say, the small island of Sardinia, their ancestors began evolving toward smaller sizes in response to limited natural resources (a colony of full-sized elephants eats thousands of pounds of food every day, much less so if the individuals are only one-tenth the size). The same phenomenon occurred with the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era; witness the shrimpy Magyarosaurus, which was only a fraction of the size of it continental titanosaur relatives. Adding to the mystery of the Dwarf Elephant, it hasnt yet been proved that the extinction of these 500-pound-beasts had anything to do with the early human settlement of the Mediterranean. However, there is a tantalizing theory that the skeletons of dwarf elephants were interpreted as Cyclopses (one-eyed monsters) by the early Greeks, who incorporated these long-gone beasts into their mythology thousands of years ago! (By the way, the Dwarf Elephant shouldnt be confused with the Pygmy Elephant, a smaller relative of African elephants that exists today in very limited numbers.)