There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
On April 1, An amazing discovery happened, When group of scientist found a dwarf lion species occurred on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean about 140,000 years ago. Dr Spiros Prota-Aprilios of the Natural Historical Museum of Crete had this to say:
Quote:We are very excited by this discovery. That dwarf elephants occurred on Crete is already well known, and now we have discovered this well-preserved skeleton in the Asteio caves on the south of the island. A small earthquake last week opened up some new chambers we had not been able to access before.
Dwarfism among animals living on islands is a well-described phenomenon. I have already mentioned the Cretan dwarf elephant, but other examples are pygmy elephants on Borneo, the dwarf Maltese hippopotamus, the California Channel Island mammoth, the Zanzibar leopard and even some very small extinct humans on the Island of Flores in Indonesia. Some islands in the Caribbean even have dwarf flies and mosquitoes. Evolutionary biologists say that smaller animals need fewer resources, and that may explain this type of dwarfism.
We believe that the lion skeleton is about 140,000 years old. As you know, lions left Africa long before Homo sapiens made the journey, and wherever early humans went – Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, India – they found that lions were already there.
The lion would have been the size of a Labrador dog and probably weighed about 60kg. The skeleton is of a male, and we are hoping to find remains of females – they would have likely been smaller. We are not able to determine if the male Cretan lion had a mane.
Dr Prota-Aprilios laughed when asked if the Cretan lions would have lived in prides. "If so, the prides would have been small", he said.
Image of dwarf lion species skeleton found at island of Crete in the Mediterranean
New dwarf lion species discovered on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean
