Over the past few hundreds of thousands of years Sicily was home to two different miniature elephants.
Now for the first-time researchers have been able to extract and delve into the DNA of one of these extinct elephants, helping to show how the largest land mammal ever to exist shrank by at least 8,000kg to become one of the smallest elephants known.
The tiny elephants that were once found on Sicily were some of the smallest elephants ever to have existed, but quite extraordinarily they are descended from one of the biggest land mammals ever to have lived: the straight-tusked elephant.
First ever DNA recovered from extinct miniature elephants of Sicily
Now for the first-time researchers have been able to extract and delve into the DNA of one of these extinct elephants, helping to show how the largest land mammal ever to exist shrank by at least 8,000kg to become one of the smallest elephants known.
The tiny elephants that were once found on Sicily were some of the smallest elephants ever to have existed, but quite extraordinarily they are descended from one of the biggest land mammals ever to have lived: the straight-tusked elephant.
First ever DNA recovered from extinct miniature elephants of Sicily
