[3] The temporal range of dwarf elephant material on Malta, including that of P. mnaidriensis, is poorly constrained.

[5] Regardless of true relationships, all remains attributed to P. mnaidriensis are thought to ultimately descend from the continental European straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus).

mnaidriensis descended from a colonisation of Sicily by the straight-tusked elephant from mainland Italy during the late Middle Pleistocene, around 200,000 years ago,[4] which replaced the even smaller, less than 1 metre (3 ft 3 in)-tall Palaeoloxodon falconeri, which had descended from a separate colonisation of Sicily by P. antiquus several hundred thousand years prior.

[1] Another estimate gives a shoulder height of 2 m (6.6 ft) and a weight of 1,700 kg (3,700 lb).

mnaidriensis on Sicily marks a faunal turnover where the depauperate endemic fauna that characterised Sicily during the Early and early mid-Middle Pleistocene was profoundly altered by the arrival of some large mammals from the continental fauna of mainland Italy, including both predators (cave lions, cave hyenas, brown bears, wolves and red foxes) and large herbivores (wild boar, red deer, fallow deer, steppe bison, aurochs, European wild ass, and the hippo Hippopotamus pentlandi) which coexisted with P. cf.

mnaidriensis in comparison to P. falconeri is suggested to be as a result of needing to defend against predators, as well as due to the presence of other competing herbivores.

[6][10] On Malta, the only other large mammal present aside from P. mnaidriensis was the dwarf hippopotamus Hippopotamus melitensis[11] (at Ghar Dalam only, at the type locality of Mnaidra gap and other Maltese localities like Zebbug Cave and Benghisa Gap hippopotamuses appear to be absent from the assemblage, with the possible exception of Gandia Fissure[3]).

mnaidriensis are from what is now the island of Favignana off the coast of western Sicily dating to around 20,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum (though this date is likely to be a minimum age), which was connected to mainland Sicily for most of the Last Glacial Period due to lowered sea levels, as well as San Teodoro Cave in northeast Sicily, which dates to sometime after 32,000 years ago.