Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants <em>Palaeoloxodon falconeri</em> and <em>Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis</em> from Sicily (Italy)

The fossil record of the Mediterranean islands attests several cases of insular dwarfism. The extinct large-sized straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus underwent this process at least twice during the Pleistocene, resulting in the evolution of Palaeoloxodon falconeri (early Middle Pleistocene) and Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis (late Middle Pleistocene/Late Pleistocene) in Sicily, a rare case of two insular taxa evolving from the same ancestral species independently on the same island and subsequently. We investigate diet-related dental wear patterns of P. falconeri and P. mnaidriensis from Sicily to test hypotheses on their niche occupation in more spatially restricted (P. falconeri) versus a more widely distributed, mainland-like (P. mnaidriensis) insular contexts. Although P. falconeri did not compete with other herbivorous mammals and could have exploited the most nutritious and palatable resources as a browser, dental meso- and microwear patterns suggest a high degree of diet..., , # Data from: Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants *Palaeoloxodon falconeri* and *Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis* from Sicily (Italy) Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7) ## Description of the data and file structure **Data from:** Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants Palaeoloxodon falconeri and Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis from Sicily (Italy) **Dataset DOI:** 10.5061/dryad.6djh9w1f7 **Description of the data and file structure:** Dental mesowear and microwear raw data. Dental mesowear data of *Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis* teeth was collected using a digital goniometer with an accuracy of 0.1° (as in Saarinen et al., 2015), model DAF-001 from CMT Utensili. The goniometer was modified to fit inside the plates by attaching two thin metal extensions to the arms, so that they shared the goniometer’s rotational fulcrum and did not need to be repositioned for each measurement. Dental mesowear data o...,