Fossil- Complete skeleton mounted female

Systematic/Paleontology

Reign: Animalia
Phylum/Division: Chordata (Vertebrata)
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Scientific name: Elephas falconeri Busk, 1867

Geological age

Geochronology (Chronostratigraphy)

Eon (Eontema): Phanerozoic
Era (Eratema): Cenozoic
Period (System): Neogene
Epoca (Serie): Pleistocene
Other chronological subdivisions: Pleistocene

Description: The skeleton belongs to an adult female, about 35 years old. The bones are partly original, some were supplemented with chalk casts, very few have been entirety rebuilt. Sicilian elephants present the phenomenon of dwarfism typical of island regions. Elephas falconeri, the smallest of the Sicilian elephants, probably derived from Elephas antiquus, a normal-size elephant that inhabited southern Europe and North Africa in the Pleistocene. In the past, due to the fragmented nature of the deposits, and the lack of reliable dating, it was assumed that the transition from E. antiquus to E. falconeri had occurred across the species E. mnaidriensis, of intermediate size between E. antiquus and E. falconeri. Therefore, it was arranged a lineage according with the hypothesis of gradualist evolution. The most recent dating has however established that E. falconeri is oldest E. mnaidriensis so that the two dwarf forms are the result of separate evolutionary lines originated from elephant populations of normal size, that have colonized Sicily in different times.

Location

Continent/Subcontinent: Europe
State: Italy
Region: Sicilia
Province: Siracusa
Municipality: Siracusa
Place: Grotta di Spinagallo

Università degli Studi di Padova, Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia

Item code: 27569

Bibliography

  • Piccoli G., Del Pup G., 1967 - I resti di elefante nano Elephas falconeri della grotta “Luparello” (Palermo). Mem. Acc. Patavina SS. LL. AA., Cl. Sc. Mat. Nat. 79, 243-260.
  • Del Favero L., Fornasiero Mg., 2005 - "Nani e giganti siciliani nelle collezioni del Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia dell'Università di Padova". Quad. Mus. Geol. Gemmelaro, v. 8, pp.71-74.