14,000 years ago, imagine growing up beside the eastern Mediterranean Sea. You are an accomplished sailor of the small watercraft you and your fellow villagers make, living off both the sea and the land. However, times have been tough lately, with a scarcity of game and fish. It might be time to explore new food sources.
Venturing farther than ever before in your little boat, you spot something on the horizon – an island. Welcome to Cyprus as the world emerges from the last ice age. You are the first human to set foot on this vast, heavily forested island filled with abundant food.
Exploring the island, you encounter tiny boar-sized hippos and horse-sized elephants that appear like babies to your eyes. Hungry after the long journey, you easily hunt a few and preserve the meat for the return trip. Excited to share your discovery, you organize a major expedition back to the island with the villagers.
Cyprus was not the only Mediterranean island with dwarf wildlife. Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, and others also had their own dwarf elephants and hippos. Island dwarfism, a common evolutionary response to limited resources and predators, made these species vulnerable to rapid environmental changes, including human arrival.
Recent research suggests that humans arrived in Cyprus between 14,000 and 13,000 years ago, well before the extinction of the dwarf hippos and elephants. Mathematical models indicate that even a small human population of 3,000 to 7,000 could have driven these species to extinction within less than 1,000 years.
This study sheds light on how small human populations can disrupt ecosystems and cause major extinctions, particularly in times of rapid environmental change. The findings from Cyprus serve as a valuable case study in understanding the impact of human arrival on island ecosystems.
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology, Christian Reepmeyer, Deputy Director – Oceania at the German Archaeological Institute, and Theodora Moutsiou, Special Scientist at the University of Cyprus, contributed to this research. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
