Elephas falconeri

Elephas falconeri is a fossil elephant Pléistocène. Its fossil remainders were found on various islands of the the Mediterranean: Malta, Sicily, Greek Crete and several islands. This species was much smaller than the continental species. Certain fossils of Sicily and Malta show that the adult animal did not reach 1 meter.

Its ancestor was an Elephant of forest, Elephas antiquus . He lived in medium timbered in all Europe and part of Asia. In opposition to Elephas falconeri , dwarf elephant, that one reached 3 meters with the garrot well.

The elephants are good swimmers and were it already. At the diluvial periods, the sea level was lower than now and the islands separated by smaller distances even, joined together by dry land bridges. They thus simply swam of island in the island. But the end of the glacial era and the cast iron of the ices made go up the sea level, preventing the animals from continuing to cross it. And as the vegetation on an island was not unlimited, it did not remain any more with the elephants of other possibilities but of evolving to a race of smaller size.

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