Insular dwarfism
Homo floresiensis or "The Hobbit" a 1 meter individual having lived on Indonesia, must have been the first time i ever heard of it. However i looked into it and soon found many other examples like the dwarf Mammoth on Wrangel Island and the fauna of the Mediterranean islands.
Insular dwarfism evolves over a number of generations when a population's range is limited to a small environment. This lead to the "Island rule" which envelops other ecosystems like caves, oases, isolated mountains etc. Causes primarly have to do with foodsupplies, a shorter gestation period, even thermoregulation in the tropics.
Having learned about Insular dwarfism, i intendly looked up examples in museums in the Mediterranean region,
like these fossil examples in a Cretan museum from elephants, Elephant tusk about 30 cms,
Wikisource credit PMaas, skeleton dwarf elephant.
Other examples include a Dwarf hippo, seen on these pictures, look at the snails sizewise in contrast to the insicors.
There is a whole list of animals ranging from Dinosaurs on a Romanian island, Dwarf sloths on Cuba, Dwarf tiger snake in Australia, a dwarf chameleon on Madagascar etc.
A fossil i own is this jawbone of a Candiacervus, a dwarf deer, also living on one of the Mediterranean islands.
A short post on Insular dwarfism, keep an eye out for it, it's little known and interesting.
Further info, Wiki
