Mini-mammoths once lived on Crete

 

My Royal Society Proceedings B paper Extreme insular dwarfism evolved in a mammoth  is out. The NHM’s film-maker Sally Weale made a really nice short film about it. Lovely excerpts from Dorothea Bate’s diary that really capture the thrill of discovery.

More here on the NHM website.

And you can download the paper (for free!) from the Royal Society here.

[Edit] A selection of the various bits of press coverage…

‘You knew about the shrinking Greek economy, but did you know about the shrinking wildlife?’ [Daily Mail, of course]

“Probably quite cute…but you’d be a bit intimidated” — Insightful comment from Dr. Herridge to the AFP. I was trying to make a point about ontogenetic scaling…

Nature News commissioned a lovely image by Viktor Leshyk to go with their sensible coverage:

Mammuthus creticus, next to a man for scale. By Viktor Leshyk. (c) NPG

Mammuthus creticus, next to a man for scale. By Viktor Leshyk. (c) NPG

And I also went on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks to talk about the paper. You can listen to the show here.