Cypriot and Greek scientists are studying a cave filled with the fossilized remains of extinct dwarf hippopotamuses in hopes of finding clues about when humans first set foot on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
"It's about our origins," said Ioannis Panayides, the Cyprus Geological Survey Department official in charge of the excavations near the resort town of Ayia Napa on Cyprus' southeastern coast.
Until now, the earliest trace of humans on Cyprus dates to 8,000 B.C. But if signs of human activity are found at the new dig, it could turn back the clock on the first Cypriots by as much as 3,500 years. The fossil haul has tentatively been dated to 9,000-11,500 B.C.
Signs of humans at the Ayia Napa site could bolster the theory that the island's earliest inhabitants drove the dwarf hippos to extinction through hunting, Panayides said.
"We can't be certain yet. The task of examining is laborious and time consuming," said University of Athens Professor George Theodorou, also involved in the dig.
The dwarf hippopotamuses were herbivores, like their modern cousins, but were only about 2½ feet tall and 4 feet long.
Experts think the first hippos arrived on Cyprus between 100,000 to 250,000 ago and probably got smaller to adapt to the hilly landscape. Panayides said paleontologists theorize the hippos may have swum or floated over during a Pleistocene ice age from what is now Turkey or Syria.
Lower sea levels at the time made Cyprus much larger, meaning it was closer to other land.
