AGI

When the dwarf mammoth lived in Sardinia

AGI Who knows how many times swimmers in Alghero have spread a beach towel on a pygmy mammoth’s tusk, recently discovered by Marco Zeda, assistant professor of pet anatomy in the Department of Veterinary Medicine and professor of archeology at Sassari University. The researcher tells AGI: “Discovery in sunlight”, “on the rocks of the Alghero coast, in a very popular area near the ramparts and in the shadow of a well-known hotel.” An important find, because the tusk is almost 48 cm full. The discovery allows, for the first time, to decipher the characteristics of “Mammuthus Lamarmorai” that lived in the Ice Age: “a fossil on a rock formation 100 thousand years ago, like a clock allows us to determine the date of the Mammut”, as Zedda, who wrote with Maria Rita Palumbo, reveals a recently published paper In Alpine and Mediterranean Quaternary, New Evidence for the Existence of Endemic Elephants from the Late Ice Age in Alghero. The reason for the existence of “minion” species of carrots. “Almost a healthy tusk is important to determine the size of this elephant for the first time,” asserts the teacher, “which in the collective imagination is a giant, but this does not exceed one and a half meters in length and weighs 700-800 kg.” It is a species that falls within the phenomenon of island dwarfism: “a universally accepted phenomenon, whereby the species that settled in all the world’s islands shrank and became smaller in size.” The theories explaining this particular evolution in islands are basically two theories: “A young animal is able to thermoregulate and survive in adverse temperature conditions,” as Zedda explains, “It is an evolution strategy for the preservation of the species. There is another theory. The theory speaks of reduction. Associated with increased production, as in young animals, gestation time is reduced and thus ensuring better evolutionary success of the species. ” The presence of the dwarf mammoth in Sardinia was already known, and the first discovery dates back to the end of the nineteenth century in Iglesity when part of the bone was found, then fragments in Sinis and two others in Alghero, but the whole tusk was discovered by Professor Zda representing the most important discovery. “It is the categorical confirmation that the Alghero region is rich in fossil evidence.” Mammoths are not the only type of Pleistocene in Sardinia: “Also in Alghero, but with large horns. Contemporary of mammoths, very large horns (branched appendages) have been found.” The researcher concludes by saying, “These are certificates that must be strengthened from the point of view of publication, exhibition and tourism.”