''Leithia'' is a genus of

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

giant

dormice A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...

from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

islands of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. It is considered an example of island gigantism. ''Leithia melitensis'' is the largest known species of dormouse, living or extinct, being twice the size of any other known species.

Discovery and taxonomy

The species were first named by Andrew Leith Adams in 1863 from remains found in caves in Malta and were assigned to the living genus ''Myoxus.''Adams, A. L. (1863), ‘Observations on the Fossiliferous caves of Malta’. ''Journal of the Royal Society,'' 4 .2. pp.11–19. ''Leithia'' was proposed in 1896 by Richard Lydekker as a new genus, suggesting an arrangement currently recognised as the subfamily Leithiinae; the names honour Leith Adams. It is estimated to have weighed up to . In the time before the

islands were colonised by humans, dozens of mammal species Endemism, endemic to the area, some unusually large like ''Leithia'', some unusually small (such as pygmy elephants and hippopotamuses) lived in

and

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, while another giant dormouse, ''Hypnomys'', lived on Mallorca to the west. In an instance of island gigantism, the dormice were able to grow large in the absence of predators on these islands, which otherwise force rodents to hide in holes or cracks, requiring them to be small. Two species of ''Leithia'', namely ''Leithia melitensis'' (the Maltese giant dormouse) and the smaller ''L. cartei'', lived in Sicily and Malta. (in Italian) The skull of ''L. melitensis'' was 10 cm long.

Evolutionary history

''Leithia'' is already present in the Early Pleistocene (late Villafranchian) faunal complex of "Monte Pellegrino", Sicily's oldest faunal complex. It is assumed that ''Leithia'' arrived in Sicily during the Late Miocene (Messinian) or Pliocene, but this is not preserved in the fossil record. The closest living relative of ''Leithia'' is assumed to be ''Eliomys'', based on morphological similarities. ''Leithia'' became extinct during the Late Pleistocene as part of a faunal turnover event caused by the uplift of Calabria and Sicily causing a closer connection with the Italian mainland, which during the low sea levels of the last glacial cycle allowed the mainland fauna of Italy to invade Sicily, coinciding with the extinction of most endemic species.Bonfiglio, L., Marra, A. C., Masini, F., Pavia, M., & Petruso, D. (2002). Pleistocene faunas of Sicily: a review. In W. H. Waldren, & J. A. Ensenyat (Eds.), ''World islands in prehistory: international insular investigations''. British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 1095, 428–436.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2406274 Dormice Pleistocene rodents Pleistocene mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1896 Rodent genera Taxa named by Richard Lydekker

Discovery and taxonomy

Evolutionary history

See also

References