We used ancient DNA from an extinct Sicilian to define its dwarfing rates. Mediterranean dwarf elephants are small-bodied descendants from one of the largest land mammals ever lived! Using ancient DNA, palaeontological and geochronological evidence to define the maximum and minimum dwarfing rate of a Sicilian dwarf elephant from Puntali cave. Published in Current Biology:
Baleka, S., Herridge, V.L., Catalano, G, Lister, A.M., Dickinson, M.R., Di Patti, C., Barlow, A., Penkman, K.E.H., Hofreiter, M., and Paijmans, J.L.A. (2021). Defining the Island Dwarfing Rate of an Extinct Sicilian Elephant Using Ancient DNA. Current Biology. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00735-1
Pleistocene Genomics Lab 