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.htmlhttp://www.paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicTaxonInfo&taxon_no=159787But 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.