[5][6] The holotype specimen of M. lamarmorai is a partial skeleton collected during the late 19th century from Guardia Pisano Hill near Gonnesa in southwest Sardinia, which was being excavated as a result of railway construction.

This rock formation is widely spread all over the west coast of Sardinia and is generally attributed to the last interglacial period that bears in northern Alpine region the term Eemian (126000–115000 years ago).

The finds include mainly elements of the spine and musculoskeletal system, so among other things, a full foot, nearly complete hand, humerus and ulna, as well as remains of tusks.

Finds from the Upper Pleistocene, which comprise a plurality of teeth are mainly from Tramariglio, near the city of Alghero, and came also from deposited sediments by wind, but above the Tyrrhenian conglomerate.

[6] The origin of M. lamarmorai is still relatively unclear – the earliest finds date from the latter part of the Middle Pleistocene, and it is thought that they colonised the island sometime after 450,000 years ago.

This colonisation likely occurred during a glacial period in which the global sea level was much lower due to the continental ice sheets and the animals could reach the island by swimming.

[4] During the Middle-Late Pleistocene Corsica and Sardinia had their own highly endemic depauperate terrestrial mammal fauna which besides M. lamarmorai included Tyrrhenian field rat, (Rhagamys orthodon) the Tyrrhenian vole (Microtus henseli), the Sardinian pika (Prolagus sardus), a shrew (Asoriculus similis), a mole (Talpa tyrrhenica), a small canine, the Sardinian dhole (Cynotherium sardous), a galictine mustelid (Enhydrictis galictoides), three species of otter (Algarolutra majori, Sardolutra ichnusae, Megalenhydris barbaricina) and a deer (Praemegaceros cazioti).