Hippopotamus antiquus

Hippopotamus antiquus is an extinct species of the genus Hippopotamus that ranged across Europe and parts of West Asia during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. It was considerably larger than the living hippopotamus, which replaced H. antiquus in Europe following its extinction.

Hippopotamus antiquus

Uncredited · 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
HippopotamusPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Hippopotamidae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Hippopotamus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 2.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 21 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 21 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence103 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.08 Mya0 Mya

21 occurrences of Hippopotamus antiquus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

21 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

3 formations

Baza — 37.72°N, 2.47°WSabbie di Nugola Vecchia — 43.53°N, 10.49°EVounargon — 37.93°N, 21.46°E

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The named rock units Hippopotamus antiquus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hippopotamus antiquus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Hippopotamus antiquus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

106 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Hippopotamus antiquus, 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

14 references

Each of the 21 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. 2 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Hippopotamus antiquus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHippopotamus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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