Fossils show Crete once hosted dwarf elephants and hippos, no longer found on the island
Fossil evidence from Crete shows that the island was once home to animals strikingly different from its wildlife today, including dwarf elephants and extinct hippopotamuses, according to a report by CretaOne.
Today, Crete’s wild fauna is best known for the kri-kri, the island’s wild goat, alongside the familiar wildlife of a Mediterranean island. But tens of thousands of years ago, the picture was markedly different, the report says.
Dwarf elephants once roamed the island
According to CretaOne, fossils of now-extinct proboscideans, including dwarf forms, have been found on Crete. These dwarf elephants were smaller than the large African elephants known today, having evolved in the island’s isolated environment.
Hippos and distinctive deer also present
Crete’s paleontological record also includes extinct species of hippopotamus and distinctive deer, CretaOne reports. The island’s fauna during different periods of the Pleistocene bore little resemblance to the animals found there today.
Why island animals often became smaller
Isolation on an island can push evolution in unusual directions, according to the report. With limited resources and different patterns of competition and predation, large animals can evolve into smaller forms over many generations — a phenomenon known as insular dwarfism.
An ecosystem that no longer exists
The report describes an ecosystem on Crete that predates the palaces, the Minoans, and the villages and towns known today, and which has since disappeared. What remains of it survives only in caves, sediments and fossils, similar to how sedimentary rock layers near Heraklion preserve traces of an ancient sea that once covered the region.
Beyond its archaeological treasures, CretaOne notes, Crete also holds the traces of a vanished animal world — a history recorded in the island’s geology much like the way Mochlos islet was once joined to the mainland before rising sea levels separated it.
