“Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus or Cypriot pygmy hippopotamus (Hippopotamus minor) is an extinct species of hippopotamus that inhabited the island of Cyprus until the early Holocene.

The {{convert|200|kg|lb|adj=on}} Cyprus dwarf hippo was roughly the same size as the extant pygmy hippopotamus. Unlike the modern pygmy hippo, the Cyprus dwarf became small through the process of insular dwarfism. This same process is believed to cause the dwarfism found in some dwarf elephants, the pygmy mammoth, and Homo floresiensis. The animal is estimated to have measured {{cvt|76|cm|ft|sigfig=2}} tall and {{cvt|121|cm|ft|sigfig=2}} long.^[2]

Excavation sites on Cyprus, particularly Aetokremnos, provide evidence that the Cyprus dwarf hippo may have encountered and been driven to extinction by the early human residents of Cyprus.^[5]^[6]^[7]

A similar species of hippo, the Cretan dwarf hippopotamus (Hippopotamus creutzburgi) existed on the island of Crete, but became extinct during the Pleistocene.

Alternative name

Many scientists maintain the name Phanourios minor for the Cypriot dwarf hippo. This generic name was given by Paul Sondaar and Bert Boekschoten in 1972,^[8] based on the remains from Agios Georgios, Cyprus. At the site, a chapel had been built into the fossiliferous rocks. The rock strata here are very rich in bone content (bone breccia). For centuries, as already mentioned by Bordone in the 16th century,^[9] villagers have gone there to collect these bones, which in their opinion are holy, because they are the petrified remains of Saint Fanourios (see also Phanourios (saint)), a Greek Orthodox Saint who, according to local myth, had fled from Syria to escape his persecutors, but had been stranded on the hostile rocky coast of Cyprus. The collected bones are ground into a powder believed to have medicinal powers. To honour the local tradition and to refer to the site, Sondaar and Boekschoten named their new genus Phanourios, following the Greek spelling. They gave the specific name minutus, but this was later changed to minor following rules of priority.

See also

References

1. ^Desmarest, A.G., 1822. Mammalogie ou description des espèces de mammifères. Mme Veuve Agasse imprimeur édit., Paris, 2ème part., pp.277-555.
2. ^{{cite news | first=Menelaos | last=Hadjicostis | title=Dwarf Hippo Fossils Found on Cyprus | date= 6 December 2007 | publisher=The Associated Press | url =http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071206/hippo_fossil_071206/20071206 | work =Fox Television | pages = | accessdate = 2007-12-06 }}
3. ^Van der Geer A., Lyras G., De Vos J., Dermitzakis M. 2010. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JmSsNuwMAxgC&pg=PP2&dq=evolution+of+island+mammals+geer&hl=en&ei=ik9MTZrfIcTJswat-9iNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands]. Wiley-Blackwell.
4. ^{{cite journal | last = Burness | first = G. P. | authorlink = |author2=Diamond, J. |author3=Flannery, T. | title = Dinosaurs, dragons, and dwarfs: The evolution of maximal body size | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 98 | issue = 25 | pages = 14518–14523 | publisher = | location = | date = 2001-12-04 | language = | url = http://www.pnas.org/content/98/25/14518 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.251548698 | jstor = 3057309 | issn=0027-8424 | pmid=11724953 | pmc=64714 | accessdate = 2012-01-28}}
5. ^The earliest prehistory of Cyprus from colonization to exploitation, ed. Swiny, Stuart, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2001, In PDF
6. ^{{Cite book | last = Simmons | first = A. H. | authorlink = | title = Faunal extinction in an island society: pygmy hippopotamus hunters of Cyprus | publisher = Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers | series = Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology | volume = | year = 1999 | location = | pages = 382 | url = http://google.com/books?id=hCwYwyEBXEAC&printsec=frontcover | doi = 10.1007/b109876 | isbn = 978-0306460883 | oclc = 41712246}}
7. ^{{Cite journal | last = Simmons | first = A. H. | authorlink = |author2=Mandel, R. D. | title = Not Such a New Light: A Response to Ammerman and Noller | journal = World Archaeology | volume = 39 | issue = 4 | pages = 475–482 | publisher = | date = December 2007 | jstor = 40026143 | doi = 10.1080/00438240701676169}}
8. ^Boekschoten G.J., Sondaar P.Y. 1972. On the fossil mammalia of Cyprus, I & II. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Series B), 75 (4): 306–38.
9. ^Bordone B. 1528. Libro di Benedetto Bordone. Nel qual si ragiona di tutte l'Isole del mondo, con li lor nomi antichi & moderni, historie, favole, & modi del loro vivere. Niccolo Zoppino, Venice. In facsimile, Edizioni Aldine, Modena, 1982.