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Riddle of the dwarf hippos

AYIA NAPA: An abattoir used by early Cypriots, a cemetery where animals went to die, or simply a shelter that ultimately proved to be a death trap?

Cypriot and Greek scientists are trying to unravel the riddle of a collapsed cave brimming with the fossilised remains of extinct dwarf hippopotamuses that were descendants of a group believed to have migrated here as far back as a quarter million years ago.

Palaeontologists have unearthed an estimated 80 dwarf hippopotamuses in recent digs at the site located outside the resort of Ayia Napa on the island’s southeastern coast.

But possibly hundreds more may be lying beneath an exposed layer of jumbled fossils embedded in the crevices of an ancient coral reef formation that now overlooks the coastline.

Scientists hope the fossil haul dated to 9,000-11,500 B.C. could offer vital clues to solving the longstanding quandary over when humans first set foot on this east Mediterranean island.

“It’s about our origins,” said Ioannis Panayides, the Cyprus Geological Survey Department official in charge of excavations carried out in conjunction with the University of Athens. “Knowledge of our geological history makes us more knowledgeable about ourselves.”

Until the Ayia Napa discovery, the earliest trace of humans on the island dated back to 8,000 B.C. But signs of human activity like stone tools and the remains of fires at the cave could turn back the clock on the first Cypriots by as much as 2,500 years.

“That’s very significant, but we can’t be certain yet. The task of examining is laborious and time consuming,” said University of Athens Professor George Theodorou tasked with examining some 1.5 tonnes of fossils.

The dwarf hippopotamuses were herbivores just like their modern-day cousins but only a fraction of their size, measuring roughly 70 cm tall and 1.2 m long. Unlike modern hippos whose upturned nostrils that sit high up on the snout are appropriate for swimming, Cypriot hippos had lower-slung nostrils better suited to foraging on land.

According to Mr. Panayides, the fossils show the Cypriot hippos had legs and feet adapted to land rather than water, enabling them to stand on their hind legs to reach low-lying tree branches. He explained that was the result of a “remarkably swift” evolutionary adaptation to their new environment — a characteristic shared by dwarf hippos unearthed in other Mediterranean, islands including Sicily and Crete.

Hippos arrived in Cyprus in more familiar dimensions between 100,000 to 250,000 ago, but they likely shrank to adapt to a more hilly island landscape. Scientists are also perplexed as to just how hippos arrived on an island that has never been physically linked to another land mass.

Mr. Panayides said palaeontologists theorise the hippos may have either swum or floated here from what is now Turkey to the north and Syria to the east during a Pleistocene ice age. They may have clung onto tree trunks and other debris during the crossing.

Lower sea levels at the time mean the island was much larger than its present-day 9,250 sq km, so it was significantly closer to neighbouring land masses. By some estimates, what is now Syria was a mere 30 km away — less than a third of its present-day distance.

Digs over the last century uncovered dwarf hippo fossils — and in much lesser quantities the fossilised remains of dwarf elephants — at 40 separate locations across the island. — AP

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Riddle of the dwarf hippos

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