RE: The Biggest Dinosaurs

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@inforamp.net>]

At 12:32 PM 8/27/97 UT, you wrote:
>I thought the dwarf elephants Betty described were actually dwarf Mammoths 
>that lasted on the island (which had been part of a larger landmass prior to 
>the isolation of the island).  They supposedly survived until about 3000
years 
>ago.  I also think that the island in question was further north closer to 
>Western Canada and Alaska.

There is some confusion here.  There were at various times in the
Pleistocene BOTH dwarf mammoths on Wrangel Island off northeastern Siberia
AND dwarf elephants on the Channel Islands off California (actually
mammoths, Mammuthus exilis) and on various Mediterranean islands (Elephas
spp.).  For details (though Wrangel is not covered) see Shoshani and Tassy,
eds., 1996. The Proboscidea: Evolution and Paleoecology of Elephants and
their Relatives. Oxford UP.  Specifically, Chapter 22 is entitled "The
Pleistocene dwarf elephants of Mediterranean islands" and chapter 24 is
"Pleistocene dwarf elephants of the California Islands".  Ch. 23, on
south-east Asia, notes that a dwarf Stegodon  is known from Java and other
dwarf remains from Sulawesi.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
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