ABSTRACT

This paper re-apprises the scant elephant remains belonging to a dwarf Palaeoloxodon of uncertain taxonomy collected during the 1980s from a cave on Favignana Island (Aegadian Archipelago, western Sicily). The elephant was recently ¹⁴C-dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (20,350–19,840 cal. BP), indicating that the Favignana elephant is likely the most recent insular endemic Palaeoloxodon species thus far reported from the Western Mediterranean. Dimensionally the remains are smaller than the late Middle-Late Pleistocene P. ex gr. P. mnaidriensis from Puntali Cave (Palermo), and similar in size to the P. ex gr. P. mnaidriensis individual from San Teodoro Cave (Messina) post-dating a flowstone U-Th dated to ca. 32 ka. Accordingly, the possibility that relict populations of Palaeoloxodon persisted on Sicily longer than previously believed remains an intriguing possibility. None the less, the available data do not clearly indicate whether or not the small dimensions and recent age of the Favignana elephant may reflect a Late Pleistocene colonisation of Favignana Island by small P. ex gr. P.mnaidriensis. Our palaeogeographic reconstruction of the Aegadian Islands does however demonstrate that Favignana was connected to Sicily during most of the Late Pleistocene, allowing elephants to disperse freely between Sicily and Favignana during the Last Glacial (MIS 4-MIS2).

摘要

本文重新评估了1980 年代从法维尼亚纳岛（西西里岛西部埃加迪群岛）的一个洞穴中收集到的属于不确定分类学的侏儒古齿龙的少量大象遗骸。这头大象最近的年代为末次盛冰期（20,350–19,840 cal. BP）的¹⁴ C 年代，这表明法维尼亚纳象可能是迄今为止从西地中海报道的最新的岛屿特有的古齿象属物种。从尺寸上看，这些遗迹比晚中-晚更新世P 小。前任 P. mnaidriensis来自Puntali Cave（巴勒莫），大小与P . 前任 海棠来自圣特奥多罗洞穴（墨西拿）的个体，将流石 U-Th 约会到约。32 卡。因此，古齿龙残存种群在西西里岛的持续时间比以前认为的要长的可能性仍然是一个有趣的可能性。尽管如此，现有的数据并没有清楚地表明法维尼亚纳象的小尺寸和最近的年龄是否可能反映了小P对法维尼亚纳岛的晚更新世殖民。前任 海棠。然而，我们对埃加德群岛的古地理重建确实表明，法维尼亚纳在更新世晚期的大部分时间都与西西里岛相连，这使得大象在末次冰期 (MIS 4-MIS2) 期间可以在西西里岛和法维尼亚纳之间自由散布。