Elephas falconeri
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Palaeoloxodon falconeri Temporal range: Late to Holocene |
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| Mounted skeleton, Nebraska State Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | Palaeoloxodon |
| Species: | P. falconeri |
| Binomial name | |
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Palaeoloxodon falconeri Busk, 1867 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Elephas falconeri Busk, 1867 |
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Elephas falconeri Busk, 1867
Palaeoloxodon falconeri (also known as Elephas falconeri, or more commonly as the Pygmy Elephant) is an extinct Siculo-Maltese species of elephant closely related to the modern Asian elephant.
In 1867, George Busk had proposed the species Elephas falconeri for many of the smallest molars selected from the material originally ascribed by Hugh Falconer to Palaeoloxodon melitensis.
This island-bound elephant was an example of insular dwarfism, with an adult male specimen MPUR/V n1 measured 96.5 centimetres (3 ft 2.0 in) in shoulder height and weighed about 305 kilograms (672 lb), and an adult female specimen MPUR/V n2 measured 80 centimetres (2 ft 7.5 in) in shoulder height and weighed about 168 kilograms (370 lb).P. falconeri's ancestors most likely reached the Mediterranean islands during the ice age when the sea levels were lower, allowing a land bridge from the mainland.
The belief in Cyclopes may be originated in P. falconeri skulls found in Sicily. As early as the 14th century, scholars had noted that the nasal cavity could be mistaken for a singular giant eye socket.
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