Elephant fossil record from Italy: knowledge, problems, and perspectives

The earliest occurrence of elephantines in Italy is in the middle Villafranchian (late Middle Pliocene; ca. 2.6 Ma), with a primitive representative of the mammoth lineage. In addition to this still poorly known taxon, four elephant species are clearly recognized in Plio-Pleistocene fossil mammal assemblages from the Italian peninsula: Mammuthus meridionalis, M. trogontherii, M. primigenius, and Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus. In Sicily, at least three different taxa are present during the Pleistocene: the dwarf E. falconeri, the medium sized E. (P.) “mnaidriensis”, and a third poorly known large sized taxon, represented by isolated findings, in some cases apparently associated with E. (P.) “mnaidriensis”. A number of specimens from Spinagallo and Luparello, of intermediate size between E. “mnaidriensis” and E. falconeri, suggest the occurrence in Sicily of a further elephant species. Sardinia records the only case of an endemic small sized Mammuthus species from the western Mediterranean. The Italian elephant fossil record clearly shows the influence of climatic, physiographic and paleogeographic conditions on the pattern of occurrence and dispersal of this mammal group in Southern Europe.