Palaeontology
Tiny mammoths lived on Crete
By
T.K. RandallMay 9, 2012 ·
4 comments
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Mammoths the size of a baby elephant roamed the Greek island of Crete over 3 million years ago.
It was the smallest species of mammoth ever to walk the Earth, even the adults were no bigger than an infant elephant. It is thought that the lack of predators and a scarcity of food sources may have contributed to the smaller size of the animals.
"Our findings show that on Crete, island dwarfism occurred to an extreme degree, producing the smallest mammoth known so far," said palaeontologist Victoria Herridge.
The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say. Adults were roughly the size of a modern baby elephant, standing over a metre tall at the shoulders.
Source:
BBC News |
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