Origin and taxonomy of the fossil elephants of the island of Crete (Greece): problems and perspectives

Abstract

Despite the fact that during the last century more than 30 studies have been published referring to the fossil elephants of the island of Crete (Greece), there are still many questions that remain unanswered. These questions concern their geographic and phylogenetic origin, how and when they reached the island, the number of valid species, how, when and why each species became extinct and, finally, the possible effect of the phenomenon of dwarfism on each species. (Dwarfism is characteristic of large mammals in insular faunas.) In addition to the available data, which we have reviewed, cross-checked and updated, we describe new fossil elephant material found in the interior of the island, at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level. Using this revised data set, we propose to (1) retain the separate taxonomic status of the dwarf elephant Mammuthus creticus; and (2) join all the described specimens of larger size under the new subspecies name Elephas antiquus creutzburgi. Moreover, in the light of the new approaches that have been attempted for the fossil elephants in other localities of the Mediterranean region, we try to solve and at least explore the mentioned problems and identify the remaining gaps in our knowledge which need to be filled in order to obtain a complete picture of the natural history of the elephants on Crete.