At the time the Maltese islands were an extension of the Italian mainland, animals like elephants, hippos, deer and foxes roamed the land. With the rising of the sea-level, or the sinking of the land, or both, the islands were separated from the land mass and these animals were separated from the land mass and these animals were marooned. This took place in the Quaternary Era, some 10,000 years ago, and not during the Pliocene, eleven million to one million years ago, as was once thought to have been the case.

In time these stranded animals gradually evolved into an island sub-race resulting in a degeneration in some of the species.

Fossil bones of animals have been discovered in caves and fissures in various parts of the island, but the largest concentration to be discovered so far is that at Ghar Dalam.

In 1917 two human molars were found in this cave and believed, at the time of their discovery, to be those of Neanderthal Man. However, these molars have now been assigned to a much later period and it can be assumed that when the animals died, and their bones carried into Ghar Dalam by the action of flowing water, Man had not yet arrived in Malta. Stone Age Man did use Ghar Dalam as his abode around 4,00 BC but, by this time these animals had become extinct in the Maltese Islands.