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All about Cyprus - Όλα για την Κύπρο
Below in English
Η Κύπρος θεωρείται ωκεάνιο νησί και είναι αποτέλεσμα της
σύγκρουσης τεκτονικών πλακών. Πριν εκατομμύρια χρόνια, η αφρικανική πλάκα
συγκρούστηκε με την ευρασιατική πλάκα, με αποτέλεσμα η πρώτη να βυθιστεί κάτω
από την ευρασιατική. Κατά τη διάρκεια της βύθισης, η ελαφρότερη πέτρα από τη
βυθισμένη πλάκα άρχισε να λιώνει και μετά, υπό μορφή λάβας, να ανυψώνεται προς
την επιφάνεια της γης. Η λάβα αυτή στην επαφή της με το νερό στερεοποιείται και
αποτέλεσμα ήταν η γένεση της Κύπρου αρχικά με την δημιουργία του Τροόδους και
μετα του Πενταδακτύλου που ήταν 2 ξεχωριστά νησιά. Μετα σχηματίστηκε και η
πεδιάδα της Μεσαορίας που τα ένωσε κι έτσι η Κύπρος πήρε τη σημερινή της μορφή.
Καινούργιες έρευνες έχουν δείξει ότι θα πρέπει να είχαμε
μέχρι 30 παγετώδεις περιόδους τα τελευταία 3 εκ. έτη (μία κάθε 100000 χρόνια)
Η στάθμη της θάλασσας κατά τις περιόδους αυτές ήταν κατά
100-120 μέτρα περίπου χαμηλότερη από την σημερινή. Υπολογίζεται ότι κατά τη
διάρκεια των παγετώνων του Πλειστοκαίνου, η Κύπρος απείχε από την πλησιέστερη
ξηρά (τον κόλπο Αλεξανδρέττας) περίπου 30 km. Και με πολλά ενδιάμεσα νησάκια.
Επομένως, είτε κολυμπώντας, είτε επιπλέοντας πάνω σε κορμούς δέντρων, τα ζώα
αυτά μπόρεσαν να φθάσουν μέχρι το νησί και να το εποικίσουν.
Τα ζώα αυτά είναι ιπποπόταμοι (Phanourios minutus) ,
ελέφαντες (E. Cypriotes) (σε κανονικό μεγάλο μέγεθος) η μοσχογαλή , μερικά είδη
τρωκτικών (μυγαλί, ακανθοποντικός) , χελώνες ξηράς , χελώνες γλυκού νερού , και
ερπετά .
Ένας πολύ σημαντικός χώρος με οστά είναι αυτός που
βρίσκετε στην παραλιακή περιοχή ξυλοφάγου. Στην περιοχή αυτή έχουν βρεθεί οστά
ιπποπόταμων, ελεφάντων, μοσχογαλής , αρπακτικών πουλιών , χελώνα γλυκού νερού
και χελώνα ξηράς. Ο χώρος αυτός δεν έχει συνδεθεί ακόμα με την παρουσία
ανθρώπου. Το σημαντικό του χώρου αυτού είναι ότι τα οστά των ελεφάντων είναι
πολύ ποιο πολλά από αυτά των ιπποπόταμων. Τα οστά των ελεφάντων είναι σπάνια
και πάντα υπερτερούσαν κατά πολύ τα οστά των ιπποπόταμων ενώ εδώ συμβαίνει το
αντίθετο.
Πολύ πιθανόν ο χώρος αυτός να ήταν μια μεγάλη λίμνη όπου
τα ζώα αυτά να κατέφευγαν εκεί για να ποιούν νερό. Τους καλοκαιρινούς μήνες το
νερό συρρικνωνόταν και τα ζώα στην προσπάθεια τους να φτάσουν στο νερό να
κολλούσαν στην λάσπη με αποτέλεσμα τον θάνατο τους.
Text and photographs by George Konstantinou
Hunting in Cyprus has a history spanning 12,000 years. It began with the arrival of the first humans on the island, whose survival depended on it.
Today, we all know that our resident game animals include partridges, francolins and hares. In the distant past, however, incredible though it may seem, the first animals possibly hunted by the people of Cyprus were hippopotamuses and elephants.
Cyprus is considered an oceanic island and is the result of the collision of tectonic plates. Millions of years ago, the African Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, causing the former to be forced beneath the latter. During this subduction, lighter rock from the descending plate began to melt and then rose towards the Earth’s surface in the form of lava. When this lava came into contact with the water, it solidified. This process resulted in the birth of Cyprus, initially through the formation of Troodos and later the Kyrenia Range, which were once two separate islands. The Mesaoria Plain subsequently formed and joined them, giving Cyprus its present shape.
Soon after the first land emerged, the earliest forms of life began to appear. Insects reached the island from neighbouring countries, carried by the wind or on floating tree trunks. The first plants arrived as seeds transported by birds, the wind and the sea.
During the Late Pleistocene, an endemic island fauna was present in Cyprus.
During the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene, there were rapid and powerful climatic changes. Glacial periods were followed by warmer interglacial periods.
Recent research has suggested that there may have been as many as 30 glacial periods during the last three million years—approximately one every 100,000 years.
During the glacial periods, the land area of Cyprus increased, but the island was never joined to the nearby mainland.
Only dispersal across the sea can explain the unique composition of Cyprus’s endemic fauna, as animals possessing swimming abilities were able to reach the island.
Herbivorous animals are excellent swimmers, unlike large carnivores.
During these periods, sea level was approximately 100–120 metres lower than it is today. It is estimated that during the Pleistocene glaciations, Cyprus was about 30 kilometres from the nearest mainland, in the region of the Gulf of Alexandretta, with several small islands lying between them. Therefore, either by swimming or floating on tree trunks, these animals were able to reach and colonise the island.
These animals included hippopotamuses (Phanourios minutus), elephants (E. cypriotes), including elephants of a larger size, a genet, several species of rodents, shrews, spiny mice, tortoises, freshwater turtles and reptiles.
The Pleistocene fauna of Cyprus, like that of other Mediterranean islands—including Crete, Sardinia, Rhodes, Tilos, Corsica and Sicily—is described as unbalanced because of the absence of large carnivorous animals.
The only known carnivorous mammal from the Pleistocene of Cyprus was a species of genet, Genetta plesictoides. It was a small carnivore, approximately the size of a cat, which fed on lizards, birds and rodents.
One extremely important bone-bearing site is situated in the coastal area of Xylofagou. Bones of hippopotamuses, elephants, genets, birds of prey, freshwater turtles and tortoises have been discovered there. The site has not yet been associated with human presence.
What makes this locality particularly important is that elephant remains are far more numerous than those of hippopotamuses. Elephant bones are generally rare, and hippopotamus remains have always greatly outnumbered them at other sites. At Xylofagou, however, the opposite is true.
It is quite possible that the site was once a large lake where these animals gathered to drink. During the summer months, the water would have receded, and the animals, while attempting to reach it, may have become trapped in the mud and died.
The elephant tusks, teeth and bones are of particular scientific interest. The new discoveries confirm that the Elephas species represented there differs from E. cypriotes.
It was clearly larger than E. cypriotes.
What, however, was its relationship with E. cypriotes? Was it an ancestral form of that species or not?
How old are these remains?
Dating of E. cypriotes remains has placed them in the Late Pleistocene.
The entire matter remains under investigation, and we hope that scientific conclusions will soon shed light on another part of our island’s prehistory.
Plants and animals living in geographically isolated areas tend to develop endemic forms. One of the most impressive consequences of this isolation is the evolution of giant forms among small vertebrates—such as reptiles, birds and rodents—and dwarf forms among large animals, including elephants, hippopotamuses and deer.
The causes of dwarfism and gigantism in island ecosystems include:
- The small size of islands compared with continental areas
- Limited food resources
- The absence of predators
- Reduction of the gene pool
- Inbreeding
Following the effects of island dwarfism, the Cypriot elephants and hippopotamuses measured up to approximately 1.5 metres in length and 75 centimetres in height and weighed around 250 kilograms. Their small size gave them greater agility and adaptability in Cyprus’s comparatively mountainous and semi-mountainous environment and helped them survive on its limited food resources.
This was yet another wonder of nature, in which dwarfism served the survival of the animals and the continuation of their species.
Over thousands of years, because of their isolation within the island environment, these animals evolved into species endemic to Cyprus.
When we describe them as endemic animals of Cyprus, we mean that they lived in Cyprus and nowhere else in the world.
The first report of the existence of these animals in Cyprus was made by the British palaeontologist Dorothea Bate in 1903.
These animals lived undisturbed in Cyprus for thousands of years, until people began arriving and settling on the island from neighbouring lands approximately 12,000 years ago.
Those people were hunter-gatherers, meaning that they depended on hunting and the collection of wild food for their survival. They may have hunted these animals until they became extinct. Although this has not yet been scientifically proven, the disappearance of the animals broadly coincides with the arrival of the first humans on the island.
To date, approximately 40 localities containing the bones of dwarf hippopotamuses and dwarf elephants have been reported in Cyprus, with hippopotamus remains forming the overwhelming majority.
I would also like to refer to Neolithic people who, immediately after the disappearance of Cyprus’s prehistoric animals, brought various species from neighbouring countries to the island for husbandry.
These animals included a species of wild cattle, sheep, pigs, foxes, mouflon and the Mesopotamian fallow deer, Dama mesopotamica.
Some of these animals escaped human control and returned to a wild state. Among them were the mouflon and the fox, both of which still survive in Cyprus today.
Another was the Mesopotamian fallow deer, Dama mesopotamica, which once lived on the island but disappeared approximately 500 years ago because of relentless hunting.
In conclusion, this is an example demonstrating that poor management and uncontrolled hunting can result in the destruction and permanent extinction of many species.
We must protect the fauna and flora of our country so that we may continue to enjoy them. Knowledge and an understanding of the mistakes made in the past will help ensure our survival and continuity in the future.
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