Cyprus is an oceanic island, it has never been connected to the mainland and as such it had something of a unique fauna during the Middle to Late Pleistocene (last 250000 years). The main mammals that lived on Cyprus were a dwarf elephant and a dwarf hippo. A recent discovery near Xylophágou suggests that a second species of dwarf elephant lived on Cyprus with a skull length of around 45 cm (about half the size of an African elephant's). This species is from older sediments and may be an ancestor to the main dwarf species or two species may have coexisted on the island! Only more discoveries will be able to provide evidence for this.
Cyprus, the largest Eastern Mediterranean island, hosted a highly impoverished endemic mammalian fauna during the Pleistocene to early Holocene times. This was a result of its extreme biogeographic isolation since its formation, which prevented the immigration of most terrestrial mammals, except for those with apparent sea channel crossing abilities. The main faunal elements are the extremely dwarfed hippo Phanourios minor, commonly found in many sites across the island, and the dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon cypriotes.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618215005856
