Mammuthus lamarmorai

Mammuthus lamarmorai is a species of mammoth which lived during the late Middle and Upper (between 450,000 to perhaps 40,000 years) on the island of Sardinia. M. lamarmorai is a dwarf species, as it is estimated to have reached a shoulder height of only 1.4 m and weighed about 550 kg. This pygmy mammoth has been found mostly in the fine-grained sediments of the western part of the island.

There is a great deal of fossil material known for M. lamarmorai, which includes cranial, dental, and post-cranial findings. So far, no complete skeleton is known. Of the few known molars just only one represents the rearmost tooth. This have 13 cm long and 6.9 cm wide, with at least eleven ridges on the enamel. A humerus reaches a length of 45 cm. The few discovered tusk fragments exhibit only a small maximum diameter of 3.5 cm. The length of the femur indicates a shoulder height of 1.4 m. The weight of this dwarf mammoths probably not have been more than 550 kg. The small size of M. lamarmorai is due to a process of insular dwarfism, which occurred when its original large ancestors reached Sardinia and due to lower food supply and lack of potential predators they reduced their size.

Most finds of M. lamarmorai were discovered on the west coast and in the western part of the island of Sardinia, and mainly comprise individual finds, but also belong to associated skeletal elements. The most important fossils are from Funtana Morimenta, a quarry south-southwest of Gonnesa in the valley of Rio Morimenta where it had already been discovered at the end of the 19th century. These fossils embedded in the Funtana-Morimenta lineup, which is composed of aeolian sedimentary formation that is located below a layer of strata dominated by a rock unit of conglomerates (the Tyrrhenian conglomerate). This rock formation is widely spread all over the west coast of Sardinia and is generally attributed to the last interglacial period that bears in northern Alpine region the term Eemian (126000-115000 years ago). The finds include mainly elements of the spine and musculoskeletal system, so among other things, a full foot, nearly complete hand, humerus and ulna, as well as remains of tusks. All discoveries are most likely to belong to a single individual. Other finds are known from San Giovanni di Sinis near Oristano, where a molar tooth was found in also deposited before the Eemian sediments, as well as an additional molar from Campu Giavesu in Sassari, which is, however, significantly larger. Finds from the Upper Pleistocene, which comprise a plurality of teeth are mainly from Tramariglio, near the city of Alghero, and came also from deposited sediments by wind, but above the Tyrrhenian conglomerate.