Pleistocene dwarf elephants of the California Islands
Abstract Mammoths of the Santa Barbara, California, Channel Islands are the only proboscideans documented from islands in the New World. Like proboscidean fossils from islands elsewhere, they tend to be dwarfed by comparison with their mainland ancestors, typically attaining as adults 120–180 cm in...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Book Part |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Oxford University PressOxford
1996
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198546528.003.0025 https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52373685/isbn-9780198546528-book-part-25.pdf |
Summary: | Abstract Mammoths of the Santa Barbara, California, Channel Islands are the only proboscideans documented from islands in the New World. Like proboscidean fossils from islands elsewhere, they tend to be dwarfed by comparison with their mainland ancestors, typically attaining as adults 120–180 cm in shoulder height, with a few extreme individuals broadening the range to 105–243 cm (Roth 1982), when their closest relatives on the mainland could reach 400 cm (Orr 1968). (See also Oldale et al. 1987, and Whitmore et al. 1967, on relatively small mammoths from the North Atlantic Continental Shelf.) |
---|