Choeropotamus

Choeropotamus is an extinct genus of Palaeogene artiodactyls and the type genus of the family Choeropotamidae. It was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Middle Eocene up to the earliest Oligocene. Choeropotamus was first described and named in 1822 by the French naturalist George Cuvier, who noted its distinct morphology from other contemporary fossil artiodactyls. Cuvier reused the name Choeropotamus from its use by 17th century Venetian physician Prospero Alpini, who previously used it to describe stuffed hippopotamuses that he incorrectly thought to be distinct species. There are currently five described species of Choeropotamus, with C. parisiensis being the type species.

Choeropotamus

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ChoeropotamidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 7.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 41.03 Mya and 33.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 20 of 20 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41.5 Mya33.4 Mya

20 occurrences of Choeropotamus on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

20 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Perrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°ECreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.55°WHeadon Hill — 50.71°N, 1.10°W

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The named rock units Choeropotamus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Choeropotamus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Choeropotamus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

309 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Choeropotamus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 20 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Choeropotamus

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Choeropotamus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChoeropotamidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Desmarest 1822