Ice Age carabao found in Cebu
20 November 2006 (The News Today) - The remains of a 100,000 year old carabao (buffalo) has been identified as a new dwarf species. The dwarf carabao may be indicative of a biological phenomenon known as “island dwarfism”, where animals living in areas with limited resources (eg. islands) adapt to be smaller.
Unknown to science until now, a new species of carabao has been discovered — 100,000 years late.
During the Ice Age, Bubalus cebuensis stood 2.5 feet and weighed about 160 kilograms. It was a mini copy of today’s adult water buffaloes that stand 6 feet and weigh up to a ton.
The dwarf buffalo is to a typical carabao as a pony is to a horse. And it is about a fourth smaller than its living relative, the hundred or so tamaraws that remain in Mindoro Island and nowhere else.
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Tags: Bubalus cebuensis, carabao, Cebu, dwarfism, Paleontology, Philippines
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