Sardinian pika


The Sardinian pika is an extinct pika that was native to the islands of Sardinia, Corsica and neighbouring Mediterranean islands until its extinction in the Roman times or perhaps as late as the late 1700s or early 1800s.

Anatomy

The full skeletal structure of the Sardinian pika was reconstructed in 1967, thanks to the numerous finds of bones in Corbeddu Cave, which is near Oliena. Some years later, from these remains, the same researchers led by paleontologist Mary R. Dawson from the US were able to create a plaster reconstruction with good accuracy. The Sardinian pika was probably much stockier and robust than extant species of pikas, and it probably resembled a sort of cross between a large wild rabbit and a pika.
Prolagus sardus weighed about 504-525 g. This is more than its ancestor Prolagus figaro, which is the only other member of Prolagus that was found in Sardinia and weighed about 398-436 g.

Ecology

Abundant fossil and subfossil remains of P. sardus from several localities in Corsica and Sardinia hint at the once broad geographical range of this Prolagus species: it lived from sea level up to at least 800 m in a variety of habitats whereby it could dig burrows. Its diet was strictly vegetarian.
Fossilized mass accumulations of broken bones suggest that it was a major source of food for many predators in the Pleistocene, like birds of prey or the Sardinian dhole, which was specialized in the hunt for this lagomorph.
The presence of Prolagus also facilitated the establishment of the first human communities of the islands. Jean-Denis Vigne found clear evidence that the Sardinian pika was hunted and eaten by people. He found that many of the Sardinian pikas' limb bones were broken and burnt at one end, suggesting that this animal had been roasted and eaten by the Neolithic colonists of Corsica.

Evolution and extinction

Ancestors of Sardinian pikas such as Prolagus figaro once spread from mainland Italy and evolved in the Corsican-Sardinian microcontinent during the Pliocene or Early Pleistocene. The oldest unambiguous remains of Prolagus sardus date back from the Middle Pleistocene, a time when both islands were periodically connected due to sea level changes. Reassessment of palaeontological data has shown that the distinction made by early authors between two contemporaneous taxa is probably unfounded, as the Sardinian pika exhibits only subtle anagenetic evolution of its anatomy and body size through time.
The Sardinian pika became extinct in Corsica and Sardinia probably during the Roman times due to agricultural practices, the introduction of predators and ecological competitors. Also, the extinction of P. sardus may be partly because of the transmission of pathogens by rabbits and hares introduced to Sardinia and Corsica by the Romans.
However, the species may have survived longer on small islands near Sardinia, perhaps up until about 300 years ago in the island of Tavolara off the northeast coast of Sardinia.

Historical references

In addition to zooarchaeological findings dated from the Roman times, the Greek historian Polybius described in The Histories the presence of an animal locally called the kyniklos which "when seen from a distance looks like a small hare, but when captured it differs much from a hare in appearance and taste" and which "lives for the most part under the ground". This animal may have been the Sardinian pika, because Corsica at that time was not characterized by the occurrence of any species of hare.
Survival of the Sardinian pika up into modern history has been hypothesised based on the description of unknown mammals by early Sardinian authors, however this interpretation remains dubious owing to anatomical discrepancies. Francesco Cetti mentioned in 1774 the existence of "giant rats whose burrows are so abundant that one might think the surface of the soil had been recently turned over by pigs" in Tavolara. The Italian poet Fazio Degli Uberti mentioned "a small animal" that he found in Sardinia which was very timid and was called "Solifughi" which means "hiding from the sun" in his poem Dittamondo, which was written in 1360.