I vertebrati delle isole: la Sardegna

Since the 18th century vertebrate specimens were collected from Sardinia, mainly found in caves, karst cavities and coastal eolianites. The best known “classic” Sardinian mammal fauna, clearly endemic, (Cynotherium sardous, Mammuthus lamarmorai, Premegaceros cazioti and small mammals such as Nesiotites similis, Tyrrhenicola henseli, Rhagamys orthodon and Prolagus sardus) have been usually regarded as ranging from the late Middle Pleistocene to the Early Holocene. Moreover, it was generally supposed that the Sardinia, after the opening of the Tyrrhenian sea (Early Pliocene), became isolated from the mainland and that the ancestor of the Pleistocene endemic taxa reached the island by sweepstake way. During the last century, and particularly during the last thirty years, knowledge about Sardinian Plio-Pleistocene mammal faunas was increased by new founds, such as the discovery of the hyaenid, Chasmaporthetes sp., in a karst fissure deposit at Orosei (Eastern Sardinia). This discovery leads to new concepts for both the biochronology and faunal evolution as well as for the paleobiogeography of Sardinian-Corsican massif.