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 1–2.3 metres (3 ft 3 in – 7 ft 7 in)) 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 lack of predation and competition. 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 Għar Dalam), Crete (in Chania at Vamos, Stylos and in a now-underwater cave on the coast), Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands, which are mostly members of the genus Palaeoloxodon, descending from the large 4 metres (13 ft) tall mainland European species Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Dwarf species of elephants and Stegodon have been found on the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines. The Channel Islands of California once supported a dwarf species descended from Columbian mammoths, while the woolly mammoths that existed on Wrangel Island north of Siberia were once considered dwarfs, but are not anymore.