Elephas falconeri Busk, 1867
Sicilian pygmy elephant
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Palaeoloxodon antiquus falconeri Busk, 1867; Palaeoloxodon falconeri Busk, 1867
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: c. 1500-2000 BC?
Distribution
Sicily (& Tilos, Greece?)
Biology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Busk, G. (1867). Description of the remains of three extinct species of elephant, collected by Capt. Spratt, C.B.R.N., in the ossiferous cavern of Zebug, in the island of Malta. Trans. Zool. Soc. London 6: 227-306.
Other references:
Ambrosetti P., 1968. The Pleistocene dwarf elephants of Spinagallo (Siracusa South Eastern Sicily). Geologica Romana 7: 277-398.
Burgio E., Cani M., 1988. Sul ritrovamento di elefanti fossili ad Alcamo (Trapani, Sicilia). Naturalista Siciliano 12(3-4): 87–97.
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]
Esu D., Girotti O., 1991. Late Pliocene and Pleistocene assemblages of continental mollusks in Italy. An overview. Il Quaternario 4: 137–150.
Imbesi M., 1956. Sugli elefanti nani della grotta di Luparello (Palermo). Actes du IV Congrès International du Quaternaire, Rome-Pise, 1953. pp. 443–447.
Joger, U. and Garrido, G. (2001). Phylogenetic position of Elephas, Loxodonta and Mammuthus, based on molecular evidence, pp. 544-547. 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]
Jordana, X., Köhler, M., Madurell-Malapeira, J., Rosso, A., Sanfilippo, R. & Sciuto F. (2015). Dental histology of the Sicilian dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon falconeri. In: 3rd International Symposium on Paleohistology, 2-5 July 2015 / Bonn, Germany, p. 88.
Köhler, Meike, Palombo, M.R., Pretus, J. Ll., Jordana, X., Moncunill-Solé, B., Madurell-Malapeira, J., Marín-Moratalla, N. & Bromage, Th.G. (2013). Bone histology of the dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon falconeri from Sicily. In: The Second International Symposium on Paleohistology ISPH 2013. (Bozeman, Montana, USA, 2013) (Book of abstracts). Volume 2, 48 pp. Lamm, E.T., Bailleul, A. & Flynn, K. (Eds.): 42.
Köhler, Meike et al. (2021). Palaeohistology reveals a slow pace of life for the dwarfed Sicilian elephant. Scientific Reports 11: 22862. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02192-4
Larramendia, Asier and Palombo, Maria Rita. (2015). Body Size, Biology and Encephalization Quotient of Palaeoloxodon ex gr. P. falconeri from Spinagallo Cave (Hyblean plateau, Sicily). Hystrix. doi:10.4404/hystrix-26.2-11478
Palombo, M. R. (2001). Paedomorphic features and allometric growth in the skull of Elephas falconeri from Spinagallo (Middle Pleistocene, Sicily), pp. 492-496. 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]
Palombo, M. R. (2003). Elephas? Mammuthus? Loxodonta? The question of the true ancestor of the smallest dwarfed elephant of sicily. In: reumer, J.W.F., J. de Vos, D. Mol. Eds. 2003.advances in mammoth research. Proceedings of the second international mammoth conference rotterdam, 16-20 may 1999. – nmr, rotterdam (deinsea 9): 273-291.
PALOMBO, M.R. & GIOVINAZZO, C. 2005. Elephas falconeri from Spinagallo Cave (South-Eastern Sicily, Hyblean Plateau, Siracusa): a preliminary report on brain to body weight comparison. In ALCOVER, J.A. & BaVER, P. (eds.): Proceedings of the International Symposium "Insular Vertebrate Evolution: the Palaeontological Approach': Monografies de la Societat d'Història Natural de les Balears, 12: 255-264.
Poulakakis, N., Theodorou, G., Zouros, E. & Mylonas, M. (2002). Molecular phylogeny of the extinct Pleistocene dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus falconeri from Tilos Island, Dodekanisa, Greece. Journal of Molecular Evolution 55: 364-374.
Raia, P., Barbera, C. and Conte, M. (2001). Scaling of proximal limb bones between Elephas antiquus and its insular descendant Elephas falconeri, pp. 502-506. 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]
Raia, P., Barbera, C. and Conte, M. (2003). The fast life of a dwarfed giant. Evolutionary Ecology 15: 293-312.
Romano, Marco, Manucci, Fabio and Palombo, Maria Rita. (2021). The smallest of the largest: new volumetric body mass estimate and in-vivo restoration of the dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon ex gr. P. falconeri from Spinagallo Cave (Sicily). Historical Biology 33(3): 340-353. [Abstract]
Stathopoulou, E. T. and Theodorou, G. E. (2001). Observations on the diagenesis of dwarf elephant skeletal remains from the island of Tilos (Dodekanese, Greece), pp. 557-562. 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]
Van Den Bergh, G. D. (1999). The late Neogene elephantoidbearing faunas of Indonesia and their palaeozoogeographic implications. Scripta Geologica 117: 1-419.
Vaufrey R., 1929. Les éléphants nains des îles méditerranéennes et la question des isthmes pléistocènes. Archives de l’Insitut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris 6: 1-220.
http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/7664/palaeoloxodon-falconeri-dwarf-elephant