Dwarf species

Several species of proboscideans lived on islands and experienced insular dwarfism. This occurred primarily during the Pleistocene when some elephant populations became isolated by fluctuating sea levels, although dwarf elephants did exist earlier in the Pliocene.

These elephants likely grew smaller on islands due to a lack of large or viable predator populations and limited resources. By contrast, small mammals such as rodents develop gigantism in these conditions. Dwarf proboscideans are known to have lived in Indonesia, the Channel Islands of California, and several islands of the Mediterranean.[33]

Elephas celebensis of Sulawesi is believed to have descended from Elephas planifrons. Palaeoloxodon falconeri of Malta and Sicily was only 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) and had probably evolved from the straight-tusked elephant. Other descendants of the straight-tusked elephant existed in Cyprus.

Dwarf elephants of uncertain descent lived in Crete, Cyclades, and Dodecanese while dwarf mammoths are known to have lived in Sardinia.[33] The Columbian mammoth colonised the Channel Islands and evolved into the pygmy mammoth. This species reached a height of 120–180 cm (3 ft 11 in–5 ft 11 in) and weighed 200–2,000 kg (400–4,400 lb). A population of small woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island, now 140 km (87 mi) north of the Siberian coast, as recently as 4,000 years ago.[33]

After their discovery in 1993, they were considered dwarf mammoths.[34] This classification has been re-evaluated and since the Second International Mammoth Conference in 1999, these animals are no longer considered to be true “dwarf mammoths”.[35]