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Author Topic: The Miniature Mammoths of Crete  (Read 1460 times)

Offline Steve F

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3137
  • Pedantic bugger, apparently.
The Miniature Mammoths of Crete
« on: May 09, 2012, 01:04:35 PM »
Still a metre tall, mind you.  Sadly, this article doesn't say how if they were around long enough for domestication, but it might be fun to give some 28mm cavemen a 15mm mammoth or two as a farm animal or pet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18003093

And if we have miniature mammoths, can giant shrimp be far behind?

Offline argsilverson

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2580
Re: The Miniature Mammoths of Crete
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2012, 02:26:53 PM »
the first fossils were found around 1907!
Till now it was supposed that they were dwarf elephants similar to those found in some other islands like Telos or Cyprus. Thus they were named as elefas creticus and the height of the skeleton is 1,13m, some link:
http://www.holiday-crete.com/fauna_prehistanimal_en.html
http://www.paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicTaxonInfo&taxon_no=159787

But be careful:
The scientists of Museum of Natural History now believe that some of the fossils (i.e. teeth) belong to  a dwarf mammoth which has to be "re"named as mammuthus cretensis. Unfortunately there is no evidence whether it could be domesticated since it used to live 1 million years BC.
Why the dwarf size? I believe that the climate change and habitat of Crete has lead this species to shrink in size.
 
OK no one really knows how it was, so you may use baby sized elephants or mamoths for their representation. As for the dwarf elephants, easily you can use baby elephants with tusks and since some have survived till 8000 yBP , it is easily to be supposed that some might have used for menagerie purpose or pets.
argsilverson

Offline joroas

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 7803
Re: The Miniature Mammoths of Crete
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2012, 03:13:35 PM »
Quote
And if we have miniature mammoths, can giant shrimp be far behind?

The Bubba Gump Company would be interested in them.  :D
'So do all who see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that we are given.'

Offline bigredbat

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 961
    • BigRedBatCave
Re: The Miniature Mammoths of Crete
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2012, 06:05:29 PM »
Maybe they were hunted by Cretan Pygmys?  With small bows and arrows?  ;-)

Simon

Offline argsilverson

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2580
Re: The Miniature Mammoths of Crete
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2012, 06:08:03 PM »
I found some link ( a science paper, alas not free) with some interesting drawings:

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018210000386

 

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