Dragons and unicorns were not located a nice sail away from the Egyptian coast. As long as the Tilos dating still stands, I say its a mystery solved. Why complicate a neat solution? Now it would be nice if someone had dwarf ele aDNA sampled to see what kind of integument they had. Might be another Pleistocene Park prospect as well.
Sorry, but that first sentence doesn’t make a lot of sense, if any at all... Because such things are never easily solved. Without solid evidence (as previously mentioned), nothing indicates that ancient egyptians were aware of mediterrean dwarf elephants.
Then why did neither the Egyptians nor the inhabitants of the Agean islands report dwarf elephants more frequently and in detail? Why are there no descriptions, more paintings, reports etc.?
Don't know: ask whoever dated the Tilos elephants. They probably had no special symbolic significance?
Nonsense. If dwarf elephants were known to the ancient egyptians, they would have found their way into concrete reports and scripture due to their peculiar appearance. Just like all other elephants elsewhere.
A slight digression, but this put an interesting thought into mind; does anyone know whether or not there are any reports and/or records of Egyptians, Phoenicians, or other Mediterranean peoples encountering the Sardinian Pika? This species most certainly *was* contemporary with them, and these cultures certainly travelled to Sardinia and Corsica, yet all the reports of the species I am aware of date to much more recently.
Thats a very good point, but the wording of ancient authors would probably confuse them with common rabbits and hyraxes.
Let's be honest; even the reports that do exist of the species confuse them with rabbits and other such creatures the species is one of those forgotten oddities which might well have been popular in zoological collections had they survived a shade longer, methinks.
I don't know, aren't some lagomorphs difficult? Or I'm sure more endangered species could be seen more often. I've seen wild and domestic bunny rabbits and a wild hare. Nothing exotic to the UK.
They have been held on and off in a number of collections - I am given to understand Moscow is having another crack at Daurian Pika at present. However, the Sardinian Pika - despite the name - was not actually a pika per se, but the final survivor of an entirely distinct group of lagomorphs which filled the same niche as rabbits. Along with persecution from humans, it is likely that competition from introduced rabbits and hares was responsible for their eventual extinction in the late 18th century. As such we don't really know how they would have fared in captivity, but given how odd they were - and their status as an island endemic of Europe - I think they could have had every chance of being popular in captive collections, perhaps filling a similar "visitor niche" to the near-ubiquitous Patagonian Mara or Black-tailed Prairie Dog.
Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons probably would have been staples in European zoos. Probably not so much in U.S. zoos.
I can imagine the Carolina parakeet being fairly common in US zoos. They're attractive and they wouldn't need a ton of space, and I assume they'd be as easy to care for as any other small parrot. They'd be a good option for any place wanting to showcase North American wildlife. The passenger pigeon probably wouldn't be so popular in US zoos, though.
The Carolina parakeet was just an Aratinga conure adapted to temperate climes; same as happened in S America. As far as I know there is no reason to believe they were difficult aviary birds any more than nanday and sun conures. The industrial revolution hit Nearctic fauna hard. The new "meat economy" stripped away the bisons, and the passenger pigeon, and the Carolina conures. Most of the meat fed poultry or fur farm animals - fur was not just a luxury item then.
What do you guys think of the Irish elk being in captivity? They're certainly impressive animals, and probably could have been kept, but maybe mostly in safari parks and large zoos. Think they would have been popular? Haven't brought up non-avian dinos much yet. Small dinosaurs would certainly be popular, they'd probably even show up in interaction programs, shoot, they'd even be kept as pets outside of zoos. (I'd be down with a pet microraptor, you guys) But the larger dinosaurs get tricky, they'd be so expensive to house and feed. A T-rex would be a popular attraction for sure, but I dunno if we'd see any in zoos. Unless someone built a colossal, expensive, Jurassic Park type facility. Still, regular zoos would probably opt for smaller tyrannosaurs and sauropods. Maybe no T-rex, but possibly Gorogsaurus?
I'd imagine the passenger pigeon would be kept similarly to how they were when they were alive, only in local collections. That is the only reason the Cincinnati zoo had passenger pigeons in the first place, and when realizing how they had some of the only captive specimens of the vanishing species, attempted to breed/find mates.
I suspect that even Gorgosaurus, at 9 metres long, would have been far too large and dangerous to handle - Nanuqsaurus or Alioramus, each being about 4 or 5 metres long, would be much more feasible.
If parrot bills cad damage hands and aviaries, imagine an adult ceratopsian. No Marwell fences for them.
