PBDB Taxon

Basic info	Taxonomic history	Classification	Included Taxa
Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Hippopotamus (hippo)

Mammalia - Hippopotamidae

Taxonomy

Hippopotamus was named by Linnaeus (1758). It is extant.

It was assigned to Bellua by Linnaeus (1758); to Hippopotamina by Gray (1825); to Artiodactyla by Owen (1848); to Hippopotamidae by Carroll (1988), Stuenes (1989), Capasso Barbato and Gliozzi (1995), Thewissen et al. (2001), Boisserie (2005), Burney et al. (2008) and Agnarsson and May-Collado (2008); and to Hippopotaminae by McKenna and Bell (1997), Boisserie et al. (2005), Orliac et al. (2010), Weston and Boisserie (2010) and Boisserie et al. (2011).

Species

H. (Tetraprotodon), H. aethiopicus, H. afarensis, H. amphibius (syn. H. incognitus), H. antiquus (syn. H. tiberinus), H. behemoth, H. coryndonae, H. creutzburgi, H. gorgops, H. kaisensis, H. karumensis, H. laloumena, H. lemerlei (syn. H. leptorhynchus), H. madagascariensis, H. major, H. meltensis, H. minor, H. protamphibius, H. sirensis

Synonyms

Trilobophorus was named by Geze (1985). Its type is Trilobophorus afarensis.

It was synonymized subjectively with Hippopotamus by Weston and Boisserie (2010).

It was assigned to Hippopotamidae by Geze (1985) and McKenna and Bell (1997).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1758	Hippopotamus Linnaeus p. 74
1825	Hippopotamus Gray p. 343
1848	Hippopotamus Owen p. 139
1985	Trilobophorus Geze
1988	Hippopotamus Carroll
1989	Hippopotamus Stuenes p. 243
1995	Hippopotamus Capasso Barbato and Gliozzi p. 248
1997	Hippopotamus McKenna and Bell p. 399
1997	Trilobophorus McKenna and Bell p. 399
2001	Hippopotamus Thewissen et al. p. suppl.
2005	Hippopotamus Boisserie p. 19
2005	Hippopotamus Boisserie et al.
2008	Hippopotamus Agnarsson and May-Collado p. 981 figs. Fig. 5
2008	Hippopotamus Burney et al. p. 19
2010	Hippopotamus Orliac et al. p. 11873 figs. Fig. 2
2010	Hippopotamus Weston and Boisserie p. 858
2011	Hippopotamus Boisserie et al. p. 620 figs. Table 1

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes

Rank	Name	Author
class	Mammalia
—	Theriamorpha	(Rowe 1993)
—	Theriiformes	()
—	Trechnotheria
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Artiodactylamorpha
—	Artiodactyla	()
—	Whippomorpha
superfamily	Hippopotamoidea	Gray 1821
family	Hippopotamidae
subfamily	Hippopotaminae	Gray 1821
genus	Hippopotamus

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. Hippopotamus Linnaeus 1758 [hippo]

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†Hexaprotodon protamphibius turkanensis Geze 1985

Subg. †Hippopotamus (Tetraprotodon) Falconer and Cautley 1836

†Hippopotamus aethiopicus Coryndon and Coppens 1975

†Hippopotamus afarensis Geze 1985

Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus 1758 [hippo]

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Invalid names: Hippopotamus incognitus Faure 1984 [synonym]

†Hippopotamus antiquus Desmarest 1822

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Invalid names: Hippopotamus tiberinus Mazza 1991 [synonym]

†Hippopotamus behemoth Faure 1986

†Hippopotamus coryndonae Geze 1985

†Hippopotamus creutzburgi Boekschoten and Sondaar 1966

†Hippopotamus gorgops Dietrich 1928

†Hippopotamus kaisensis Hopwood 1926

†Hippopotamus karumensis Coryndon 1977

†Hippopotamus laloumena Faure and Guerin 1990

†Hippopotamus lemerlei Milne Edwards 1868

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Invalid names: Hippopotamus leptorhynchus Grandidier and Filhol 1894 [synonym]

†Hippopotamus madagascariensis Guldberg 1883

†Hippopotamus major Cuvier 1824

†Hippopotamus meltensis Major 1902

†Hippopotamus minor Desmarest 1822

†Hippopotamus protamphibius Arambourg 1944

†Hippopotamus sirensis Pomel 1896

Invalid names: Hippopotamus amphibius standini Monnier and Lamberton 1922 [nomen nudum], Trilobophorus Geze 1985 [synonym]

Diagnosis

No diagnoses are available

Body mass estimates

estimate	equation	reference
633.4 kg	Mammalia femur diameter	Gingerich 1990
419.7 kg	Mammalia humerus diameter	Gingerich 1990
1.21 tons	Mammalia tibia diameter	Gingerich 1990
mean: 685.4 kg

Measurements

part	N	mean
femur diameter	1	53.0
humerus diameter	1	50.1
radius diameter	1	38.8
tibia diameter	1	66.5

Composition:

phosphaticsubp

Environment:

terrestrialo

Locomotion:

actively mobilec

Life habit:

amphibiousg

Diet:

grazerf

Diet 2:

browserf

Reproduction:

viviparoussubc

Created:

2012-04-17 11:18:49

Modified:

2012-04-16 20:18:49

Source: g = genus, f = family, o = order, subc = subclass, c = class, subp = subphylum

References: Lillegraven 1979, Nowak 1999, Gingerich 2003, Nowak 1991, Carroll 1988, Hendy et al. 2009

Age range

Maximum range based only on fossils: base of the Messinian to the top of the Holocene or 7.24600 to 0.00000 Ma
Minimum age of oldest fossil (stem group age): 5.333 Ma

Collections (442 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Oldest occurrences
Miocene - Pliocene	23.03 - 2.588	Uganda	Hippopotamus kaisensis (22399)
Miocene - Pliocene	23.03 - 2.588	South Africa	Hippopotamus sp. (22220 22229)
Neogene	23.03 - 2.58	Myanmar	Hippopotamus sp. (215569)
Late/Upper Miocene - Early/Lower Pliocene	11.608 - 3.6	Uganda	Hippopotamus sp., Hippopotamus kaisensis (22345)
Messinian	7.246 - 5.333	Kenya	Hippopotamus sp. (22275 22316 22318)
Messinian - Piacenzian	7.246 - 2.588	South Africa (Cape)	Hippopotamus sp. (59167)
Zanclean	5.333 - 3.6	Kenya	Hexaprotodon protoamphibius (22234)
Zanclean	5.333 - 3.6	Ethiopia	Hippopotamus protoamphibius (21737)
Pliocene	5.333 - 2.588	Malawi	Hippopotamus sp. (22559)
Pliocene	5.333 - 2.588	Ethiopia	Hippopotamus indet. (21755) Hippopotamus sp. (21754)
Pliocene	5.333 - 2.588	Uganda	Hippopotamus kaisensis (22265)
Zanclean - Piacenzian	5.333 - 2.588	Kenya	Hexaprotodon protamphibius (22235)
Pliocene - Calabrian	5.333 - 0.774	Ethiopia	Hippopotamus sp., Hippopotamus amphibius (21989)
Zanclean - Calabrian	5.333 - 0.774	Kenya	Hexaprotodon karumensis (21473)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	Uganda	Hippopotamus gorgops (22213)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	Malawi	Hippopotamus sp. (22323)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	South Africa	Hippopotamus sp. (21960)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	Djibouti	Hippopotamus gorgops (22485)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	Congo-Kinshasa	Hippopotamus amphibius (22346) Hippopotamus gorgops, Hippopotamus kaisensis (22207)
Pliocene - Pleistocene	5.333 - 0.0117	France (Auvergne-Rhône-Alps)	Hippopotamus amphibius (44231)