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LARGE PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS of the MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Maria Rita Palombo

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LARGE PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS of the MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Maria Rita Palombo LARGE PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Maria Rita Palombo To cite this version: Maria Rita Palombo. LARGE PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN IS- LANDS. Vie et Milieu / Life & Environment, Observatoire Océanologique - Laboratoire Arago, 1996, pp.365-374. hal-03101250 HAL Id: hal-03101250 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03101250 Submitted on 7 Jan 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. VIE MILIEU, 1996, 46 (3/4) : 365-374 LARGE PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Maria Rita PALOMBO Dipartimento di Scienze délia Terra, Université degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185 Rome, Italie MAMMALIA ABSTRACT. - The large Pleistocene mammals of the Mediterranean islands show PLEISTOCENE two main distintive features : variations in body size and morphofunctional MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS modifications of the skull, dentition and limbs, with the appearence of apomorphic SIZE AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES characters. Thèse variations are the resuit of interaction among several factors (e.g. réduction of the genetic pool, endogamy, hormonal shocks, neotenia, intra- and inter-specific relationships, food supply, free ecological niches etc.) which may have greater or lesser importance at différent times. The morphofunctional modifications seem to be more dépendent on the environmental change from mainland to insular biotopes. It is difficult to establish an univocal model of the insularization mechanism for the large Pleistocene mammals : each island had its faunas, each insular fauna had its history. Filtering effects of barriers, dispersai routes and modality of migration may differ based on the mammal group and may change during the time. MAMMALIA RÉSUMÉ. - Les Mammifères endémiques des îles méditerranéennes (Eléphants, PLÉISTOCÈNE Hippopotames, Bovidés, Cervidés, Rongeurs et Insectivores) sont caractérisés non ÎLES MÉDITERRANÉENNES seulement par des variations de la taille, mais aussi par des modifications VARIATIONS DE TAILLE ET DE MORPHOLOGIE morphofonctionnelles. La variation de taille est déterminée par l'interaction de nombreux facteurs (endogamie, déséquilibres hormonaux, rapports intra- et interspécifiques, niches écologiques libres etc.). En fonction des conditions du milieu et du nombre d'individus qui constituaient la population pionnière, chacun de ces facteurs peut avoir un rôle préférentiel. Les modifications fonctionnelles sont fonction de la niche écologique occupée, souvent indépendantes de la taille, et propres à chaque taxon. Les modalités du processus de spéciation, celles du peuplement et les voies de migration suivies ont été au centre de discussions assez vives. Ces modalités sont propablement diverses pour chaque taxon et pour chaque île ; pour la même île elles peuvent aussi varier avec les différentes phases de peuplements. INTRODUCTION The decrease in the number of the species pré- sent in an isolated area is mainly due to pheno- mena of extinction and/or scarcity of colonizing The associations populating geographically forms, which may lead to oligotypical ecosystems and/or ecologically isolated continental districts with slight diversity. In the case of virgin bio- generally include a limited number of species, are topes, the oligotypy is initially primitive (Bellan, less diversified, and of an unbalanced composition 1989), due to the low number of colonizing forms. with respect to the cenosi of similar but unisolated In some cases the particular environmental, phy- biotopes. siographical and microclimatical conditions, or more strictly speaking, the biological conditions The characteristics which allow us to identify of the isolated area, do not allow or restrict the terrestrial mammal faunas of isolated areas are passage to an évolutive oligotypy (Bellan, 1989), basically : - more or less accentuated oligospeci- which should lead to a polispecific population. ficity of the associations ; - exclusive présence of some mammal groups and scarcity or total absence The oligospecificity of the associations of an of others; - more or less accentuated endémie isolated district is the resuit of the interaction nature of the existent forms, which may differ so among various factors. Among thèse, particularly greatly from their ancestors as to make identifi- in the case of terrestrial mammals, the broadness cation of the ancestral species difficult. and the nature of the barriers and their changing 366 M. R. PALOMBO through time are particularly important. The mo- mena in literature (see inter alias Thaler, 1973; dality and the possibility of migration, the effects Sondaar, 1977; Alcover et alii, 1981; Azzaroli, of filtering and of canalization effected by the 1982; Malatesta, 1986 and références included in barrier may greatly differ based on the mammal those papers) and is usually manifested by a de- group, or also, in some cases, according to the crease in body size of the large mammals (the species and its ecological flexibility within the only exceptions being " ?Pseudodama" (Leptocer- realm of the same group. vus) major of Crète - withers height of about 165 cm, Dermitzakis & de Vos, 1987 - and Me- galolutra barbaricina of Sardinia, Willemsen & DISCUSSION Malatesta, 1987) and by the increase in body size of micromammals, birds and reptiles. In the past, In the associations to typically insular mam- in order to explain the variations in size, great mals (oligospecific, unbalanced, strongly endé- importance was attributed to the absence, on in- mie) of the Mediterranean islands, during the sular environments, of large carnivores. It is un- Pleistocene, for instance, the large mammals are doubtedly relevant, but the variations in body size represented by a few forms equipped with good are actually the resuit of interaction among nu- or excellent natatorial capability (éléphants, hip- merous factors, essentially connected with the ac- pos, cervids)(1), while the micromammals are quired characteristics of pioneer populations once more diversified (Soricidae, Talpidae, Gerbellidae, they reached the island (the number of species Arvicolidae, Muridae, Myoxidae, Ctenodactyli- and individuals for each species, the réduction of dae, Ochotonidae). If in the case of the first, in the genetic pool, reproduction and mortality rates, fact, colonization cornes about preferably when endogamy, hormonal shocks, heterochrony in on- tectonic, climatic, and/or glacio-eustatical factors reduce the arm of the sea to be crossed, in the togenesis, neotenia, phenomena of progenesis and case of the micromammals, natural rafts may be hypermorphosis, etc.), with those of the environ- a means for dispersai ; this might corne about even ment (type and extension of free niches, quanti- when the barrier is still too broad and the route tative and qualitative decrease in food supply) and too inconvénient to allow colonization by large with the intercurring relations among various mammals. forms (absence of large carnivores, compétition, Once on the island, the interaction among se- prédation, overpopulation, etc.). Each factor may veral biotic and abiotitc factors (physiological, have greater or lesser importance at différent ecological, and ethological characteristics of co- times. In the case of the large herbivores, the lonizing forms, of those possibly pre-existing on decrease in body size favours the préservation of the island and their inter- and intra-specific rela- relatively numerous populations and reduces the tionships ; the physiographical and microclimati- risk of a high rate of extinction. The reproduction cal characteristics of the island, the entity of the rate could furthermore be higher, if phenomena available ecological niches, the size and stability of neotenia were associated to small size. The of the barrier, the possibility of new migrations), présence of herbivores with an increased size whose relative importance may vary from one island to another or on the same island at différent could be due to the présence of peculiar ecological times, leads to the appearance of new forms. The niches in situations of strong compétition or to evolutionary process may be relatively quick, and the casual fixing of apomorphic character or to it is likely to corne about in the phases immedia- the phenomenon of hypermorphosis. For a long tely following colonization. It may be that initially time, it was hypothesized that the phenomenon of the modifications concerned in the phenotype and the decrease in body size was progressive, and in only afterwards in the génotype. The type and the case of the présence on an island of more than modality of speciation, even originated by one similar form of différent size, when biostra- common ancestors, are typical of each species on tigraphical data was lacking, the smaller forms each island and may vary in the case that the were considered more récent. In some cases, how- same form colonise the same island at différent ever, as in the Crète cervids, where there was a times. Two main distinctive features can be reco- congeneric form of différent
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