Palaeoloxodon cypriotes (Cyprus Dwarf Elephant)

[another specialist]

Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) cypriotes Bate, 1903
The Cyprus dwarf elephant survived at least until 11,000 BP. Its estimated body weight was only 200 kg, which is a weight reduction of 98% from the 10.000 kg ancestor. Molars of this dwarf are reduced to approximately 40% the size of mainland straight-tusked elephants.

Remains of the species were first discovered and recorded by Dorothea Bate in a cave in the Kyrenia hills of Cyprus in 1902 and reported in 1903.[2][3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_elephant

[another specialist]

The Cyprus Dwarf Elephant (Elephas cypriotes) is an extinct species of elephant related to the living Asian Elephant.

Believed to be descended from the Straight-tusked Elephant, it inhabited Cyprus and some other Mediterranean islands during the Late Pleistocene.

The factors responsible for the dwarfing of island mammals are thought to include the reduction in food availability, predation and competition.

The Cyprus dwarf elephant survived at least until 9,000 BC. Its estimated body weight was only 200 kilogrammes, a weight reduction of ninety-eight per cent from its ancestors which weighed some ten metric tonnes. Molars of the dwarf are less reduced in scale, being some forty per cent of the size of the mainland straight-tusked elephants.

This species is also known as Elephas cypriotes Bate.[1]


[edit] Excavations
Finds of whole or partial skeletons of this elephant are very rare. The first recorded find was by Miss Dorothea Bate in a cave in the Kyrenia hills of Cyprus in 1902, described in a paper for the Royal Society in 1903[2] and in a later paper for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1905.[3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus_Dwarf_Elephant

[another specialist]

Palaeoloxodon cypriotes, the dwarf elephant
of Cyprus: size and scaling comparisons with
P. falconeri (Sicily-Malta) and mainland P. antiquus

www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/479_480.pdf

[Deleted]

Cyprus Dwarf Elephant
Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) cypriotes

some teeth:



source:

'Proboscidea : a monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world / by Henry Fairfield Osborn ; edited by Mabel Rice Percy. New York: Published on the J. Pierpont Morgan Fund by the trustees of the American Museum of Natural History :1936-1942'

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

[surroundx]

Davies, P. and Lister, A. M. (2001). Palaeoloxodon cypriotes, the dwarf elephant of Cyprus: size and scaling comparisons with P. falconeri (Sicily-Malta) and mainland P. antiquus, p. 479-480. In: Cavarretta, C., Gioia, P., Mussi, M. and Palombo, M. R. (eds.). The World of Elephants – International Congress, Rome. Proceedings of the 1st international congress – Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche, Rome. [automatic download]

[Melanie]

Paleolithic Humans Caused Extinction of Dwarf Hippos and Elephants on Cyprus

www.sci.news/paleontology/paleolithic-humans-extinction-dwarf-hippos-elephants-cyprus-13273.html

Corey J.A. Bradshaw et al. 2024. Small populations of Palaeolithic humans in Cyprus hunted endemic megafauna to extinction. Proc. R. Soc. B 291 (2031): 20240967; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0967

Abstract

The hypothesized main drivers of megafauna extinctions in the late Quaternary have wavered between over-exploitation by humans and environmental change, with recent investigations demonstrating more nuanced synergies between these drivers depending on taxon, spatial scale, and region. However, most studies still rely on comparing archaeologically based chronologies of timing of initial human arrival into naïve ecosystems and palaeontologically inferred dates of megafauna extinctions. Conclusions arising from comparing chronologies also depend on the reliability of dated evidence, dating uncertainties, and correcting for the low probability of preservation (Signor–Lipps effect). While some models have been developed to test the susceptibility of megafauna to theoretical offtake rates, none has explicitly linked human energetic needs, prey choice, and hunting efficiency to examine the plausibility of human-driven extinctions. Using the island of Cyprus in the terminal Pleistocene as an ideal test case because of its late human settlement (~14.2–13.2 ka), small area (~11 000 km2), and low megafauna diversity (2 species), we developed stochastic models of megafauna population dynamics, with offtake dictated by human energetic requirements, prey choice, and hunting-efficiency functions to test whether the human population at the end of the Pleistocene could have caused the extinction of dwarf hippopotamus (Phanourios minor) and dwarf elephants (Palaeoloxodon cypriotes). Our models reveal not only that the estimated human population sizes (n = 3000–7000) in Late Pleistocene Cyprus could have easily driven both species to extinction within < 1000 years, the model predictions match the observed, Signor–Lipps-corrected chronological sequence of megafauna extinctions inferred from the palaeontological record (P. minor at ~12–11.1 ka, followed by P. cypriotes at ~10.3–9.1 ka).

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.0967