to island gigantism. The fossils are found in partially infilled paleokarst fissures across Monte Gargano. The Gargano Island fauna is known as Mikrotia fauna after an endemic rodent genus of the area. Initially named Microtia, this had to be corrected, because the genus name Microtia was already used for butterflies. The surface features of the ancient karst developed in Mesozoic limestone. In these, sediment accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna, forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratified silty-sandy clays, known as terrae rossae ("red soils"). Through the mid-Pliocene, some of these deposits were flooded, probably due to tectonic movement of the Apulian Plate. Others were overlaid by other sediments of terrestrial or freshwater origin. In this way a buried, partially reworked paleokarst originated. Later, as the ice ages cycle got underway, sea levels sank and the former island was continentalized. In the cool and semiarid conditions of the Early Pleistocene (some 1.8–0.8 mya) a second karstic cycle occurred, producing the neokarst which removed part of the paleokarst fill. Fauna The Gargano Island endemic mammals included: Deinogalerix - 5 species of gymnures ("hairy hedgehogs"), among them the giant D. koenigswaldi with a skull of c.20 cm length. (Freudenthal, 1972; Butler, 1980) Hoplitomeryx - some 5 species of "prongdeer" with five horns and sabre-like upper canine teeth. They ranged from tiny to the size of a red deer, and large and small ones apparently occurred at the same time rather than one evolving from the other. (Leinders 1984, van der Geer 2005, van der Geer 2008) Mikrotia - 3 or more species of murine rodent. The largest species, M. magna, had a skull 10 cm long. (Freudenthal, 1976, Parra et al., 1999) Paralutra garganensis - an endemic species of otter. (Willemsen, 1983) Prolagus imperialis and P. apricenicus - huge endemic pika species- P. imperialis was larger than any other known Prolagus.(Mazza, 1987) Stertomys - 5 species of dormouse, among them the giant S. laticrestatus (Daams and Freudenthal, 1985) and four smaller species (Freudenthal and Martín-Suárez, 2006) Hattomys - 3 species of giant hamsters, among them the giant H. gargantua. (Freudenthal, 1985) Non-endemic mammals found on the island included: Apodemus gorafensis - a field mouse A prehistoric species of Cricetus hamster (Freudenthal, 1985) Megacricetodon - another hamster (Freudenthal, 1985) Bird species occurring at Gargano included (studied by Ballmann, 1973, 1976): Apus wetmorei, a swift. Columba omnisanctorum - one