#deinogalerix

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Many people are marginally familiar with Pleistocene island faunas. Tiny elephants and deer, giant swans and tortoises etc. However the Late Miocene/Pliocene of Italy was also host to a unique island fauna. This is Gargano island home of the terror hedgehogs.

Actually giant moonrat would be more accurate but few people know moonrats/gymnures. Gargano is on the surface not as flashy as some later faunas but the composition of this island fauna was certainly bizarre. Besides the largest terrestrial predator being a gymnure we have a...

number of giant rodents, large tortoises and huge birds pf prey as well as a fragmentary crocodile and a still mysterious ruminant with 5 horns. This animal, known as Hoplitomeryx is known from several species of which many lived during the same time. Some were probably insular...

dwarfs, not larger than a muntjac, while at least one species had long, slender legs and was the size of a white tailed deer. It exact proportions however are still somewhat in the dark, mostly, it seems, because of insufficient description of postcranial material...

Yes, this IS a call out post. If there are inaccuracies in my depiction of this genus I encourage everyone to better describe and figure the material we have. Sorry, rant over... Besides Hoplitomeryx the largest herbivore from here would have been a bird. Garganornis was...

Only published in 2014 and goes to show that big discoveries can still be made. The large tortoise from here is also not described yet and there are abstracts talking about gecko remains. Non the less, as you can see in this size chart by JW, @arminreindl and myself, the fauna is still open for many fascinating images. Although we recommend to also have a look at the faunal stages put into this graph so you don't end up with impossible cameos ;)

[dougdimmadodo]

November's Fossil of the Month: Deinogalerix (Deinogalerix spp.)

Family: Hedgehog Family (Erinaceidae)

Time Period: 10-5 Million Years Ago (Late Miocene)

Native to what is now the Gargano region of southeastern Italy (which, as a result of higher sea levels, was an isolated island at the time,) the members of the genus Deinogalerix were relatives of modern hedgehogs comparable in size to small dogs. Lacking defensive spines but possessing long legs and proportionally enormous jaws, it is believed that, in the absence of large carnivores on their home island, the ancestors of this genus' members developed into fast-moving carnivores that may have fed on smaller vertebrates in addition to the invertebrates that make up the bulk of their smaller relatives' diets. The evolutionary phenomenon by which small carnivores isolated on islands gradually become larger, known as insular gigantism, is fairly well documented (being seen in both modern animals such as the Komodo Dragon and numerous extinct species known from fossils found on islands or in areas that were once islands, including a species of eagle-owl sized barn owl, Tyto gigantea, which coexisted with Deinogalerix on what is now Gargano) and is thought to occur in response to a lack of established large predators compared to nearby mainlands. The assumption that Deinogalerix species developed to exploit a lack of competition from similarly-sized predators would also explain their eventual extinction; the Miocene period ended in a major ice age, and as an increase in ocean freezing caused sea levels to fall the island on which Deionogalerix developed would have become more easily accessible from the mainland, possibly allowing for other similarly-sized or larger predators to colonise the former island and outcompete its unique inhabitants - a theory supported by the fact that Tyto gigantea also seems to have gone extinct around this time.

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Image Sources: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deinogalerix_koenigswaldi-Naturalis-PeterMaas.JPG

and

https://www.sci.news/paleontology/science-deinogalerix-masinii-new-giant-fossil-hedgehog-italy-01535.html

[theantiazdarcho]

Deinogalerix

[alphynix]

Island Weirdness #15 -- Deinogalerix

Thanks to the absence of large terrestrial carnivores on the Gargano-Scontrone island(s) during the Late Miocene, animals that were usually small had the opportunity to become larger, moving into the vacant ecological niches and evolving into predators unlike anything existing on the mainland.

Deinogalerix was a giant member of the gymnures -- close relatives of hedgehogs without the quills -- with a proportionally big head and a long snout full of large fangs at the front and bone-crushing molars at the back.

Several different species have been found, with the largest Deinogalerix koenigswaldi having a head-and-body length of around 60cm (2′). Along with its tail that would have made it at least 90cm long (2′11″), making it the biggest eulipotyphlan ever discovered.

It would probably have hunted smaller mammals, birds, and reptiles, filling a niche on the island similar to dogs or cats.

[dwollsadventures]

Daily D&D Monster: Dire Rat [NEW]

While Deinogalerix haven't had hundreds of years of human interaction, they can be tamed like other animals. Though, the process is pretty difficult with a low success rate. But, when it happens once in a blue moon, they become just as faithful as the best dog. Stories exist of some odd occurrences happening when the owner has an accident... -- [UPDATE: 8/29/2018]: ...

[dwollsadventures]

Daily D&D Monster: Dire Rat

Deinogalerix, despite its carnivorous tendencies, is favored as a pet by a small, very concentrated group of people.

[daily-mspaint-paleoart]

27/01/25 Deinogalerix

[fluffyyutyrannus]

New Carnivores critter! behold Deinogalerix! the nocturnal scavenger of the artic sector!

I'll be real this took way too long to make and part of me is still bothered by it but hey, guess its good enough for now, I'd rather not get obsessed over it.