Lucia Caloi

Functional aspects and ecologicalimplications in Pleistocene endemic cervids of Sardinia, Sicily and Crete

Abstract Some cranial and mandibular characters, that are considered distinctive between grazers and browsers, are examined. Their analysis allows to recognize the exploiting of different feeding habits for every cervid. Attitude for grazing characterize the megacerine from Sardinia and the cervine from Sicily, while the megacerine from Sicily must have a browser diet. The feeding “niche” of the megacerine from Crete are difficult to identify. Analysis of the functional mophology of carpus, tarsus and phalanges put in evidence that the cervine from Sicily and the megacerine from Sardinia are adapted to agile and fast locomotion on prevalently hard and even grounds., while the megacerine from Sicily was characterized by a locomotion on the soft grounds of woody environments. The megacerines from Crete could move on hard and uneven grounds, but with scarse agility. The great cervines from Crete moved with stiff movements and their locomotion must have been slow and rigid. They may have eaten the top of shrubs or of trees at different heights.

Functional aspects and ecological implications in Pleistocene endemic herbivores of Mediterranean Islands

The endemic herbivores of Pleistocene Mediterranean Islands, in their processes of adaptation and speciation, show two main tendencies: size variations, widely described in the case of size reduction, and morphological and functional variations, mainly concerning the distal segment of limbs. In the so‐called pachyderms (elephants and hippos) adaptive morphologies are added to variations due to size reduction and point out a cursorial attitude. The endemic insular cervids show perhaps less remarkable functional modifications, but these modifications demonstrate that each form acquire characteristic adaptations, in function of their ecological niche. The modifications of endemic bovids are less known with exception of the dwarf balearic bovids, in which the evolutive process prouced remarkable cranial, dental and limb modifications.

New forms of equidsin Western Europe and palaeoenvironmental changes

Abstract Equids are considered organisms indicating changes in climate and variations in environmental conditions. Within the Equini tribe, this sensitivity corresponds to a considerable morphological and physiological plasticity in the subgenus Equus , allowing its spread in Eurasia and North America under the most adverse and diversified climatical conditions. Also the stenonian species, E. stenonis , show a certain plasticity, and in their vast territory in North America and Eurasia have led to a variety of local forms with environmental, even more than chronological, significance. It is therefore considered opportune to institute new subspecies, in order to partially stress this plasticity of the family Equidae: E. stenonis pueblensis (=E. s. cf. vireti ) from La Puebla de Valverde (Faunistic Unit of Saint Vallier), which is a leptosomic form with a short protocone index; E. s. olivolanus (=partim E. stenonis) from Olivola and Matassino (Olivola F. U.), which is large and slender and has a still shorter PI than the former subspecies; E. caballus malatestai , from the layers of the “lower brackish limestone series” of Torre in Pietra (Rome) (stage 9), as large as E. c. mosbachensis , but with a shorter muzzle and more derived characters in the metapodials. A tentative connection was made between the morphologies of the various forms and the ecological characteristics. The compatibility of extreme environmental conditions in the Plio-Pleistocene with a higher number of taxa of equids than theoretical one, was stressed, perhaps as a consequence of the extreme fragmentation of the environment, which characterized the glacial periods.