Considerations on the potential use of cliffs and caves by the extinct endemic late pleistocene hippopotami and elephants of Cyprus

Abstract

Most of the fossil mammal sites on Cyprus, as well as on other Mediterranean islands, consist of large quantities of bones found in caves. Of 32 sites with Phanourios minutus and 21 with Elephas cypriotes on Cyprus, 19 were located in caves, two in rock-shelters, and 11 at open-air sites. Fifteen of them were littoral, four coastal, and 13 inland. The purpose of this paper is to examine possible reasons why Phanourios and Elephas remains accumulated mainly in littoral and coastal caves. Based on an analysis of the behavior exhibited by living hippopotami and elephants, we assume that the extinct large mammals of Cyprus entered these caves in search of fresh water and to protect themselves from the heat in the cool and moist cave environment. A further reason may have been that these mammals entered the caves seeking mineral licks to rectify possible mineral deficiencies, to bind secondary plant compounds such as tannins, or to counteract acidosis. By entering caves, or even passing along narrow paths through cliffs, they were at risk of becoming trapped in natural traps, such as caves with their openings facing upwards, sinkholes, and mire traps. There is no evidence that Phanourios and Elephas remains were accumulated by natural predators because on the island there were no predators large enough to carry such large mammals. The only exception are the remains in the Akrotiri Aetokremnos rock shelter on the Akrotiri peninsula, where there is evidence that the 218,459 Phanourios and 330 Elephas remains were accumulated by the first human settlers of Cyprus, about 10,000 years BP.

Direct Dating and Physico-Chemical Analyses Cast Doubts on the Coexistence of Humans and Dwarf Hippos in Cyprus

“…While this finding does not completely exclude the role of humans in the accumulation of the bone assemblage at an earlier time, this is clearly not the most parsimonious scenario given the absence of cut marks already noted by the same author [ 15 ]. Rather, our results give more strength to the scenario suggesting that hippo bones in stratum 4 accumulated naturally as has happened at numerous localities around the coast of Cyprus [ 41 ]. This accumulation could have resulted from the trapping of animals in an open-roofed cave.…”

Fore limb bones of late Pleistocene dwarf hippopotamuses (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla) from Madagascar previously determined as belonging to the crocodylid <i>Voay</i> Brochu, 2007

“…A cypriote locality discovered in 1980 at the Akrotiri peninsula, for example, revealed over 200,000 accumulated bones and bone fragments of the pygmy hippopotamus Phanourios minutus and the pygmy elephant Elephas cypriotes (Hadjisterkotis & Reese 2008). They were found accompanied with numerous artefacts -manipulated bones are the evidence for a butchery by humans which populated Cyprus 10,000 years ago.…”

An exclusively hyena-collected bone assemblage in the Late Pleistocene of Sicily: taphonomy and stratigraphic context of the large mammal remains from San Teodoro Cave (North-Eastern Sicily, Italy)

“…As cyclic occupation of the den is observed in extant spotted hyenas (Lansing et al, 2009), it is possible that elephants inhabited the cave during a phase of abandonment by hyenas. Cave utilization by elephants is attested in the modern and fossil record (Bowell et al, 1996;Hadjisterkotis and Reese, 2008;Redmond, 1982). According to Haynes (1987), extant spotted hyenas would be able to prey upon large elephants, but remains of this herbivore are very rare in modern dens and are mainly scavenged (Lansing et al, 2009; and references therein).…”