Hippopotamus (genus)

Hippopotamus Temporal range: Pliocene - Recent [1] [2]
The river hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Hippopotamidae
Subfamily:	Hippopotaminae
Genus:	Hippopotamus Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
PhanouriosSondaar and Boekschoten, 1972

Hippopotamus, meaning "river horse" in Ancient Greek, is a genus of artiodactyl mammals consisting of one extant species, Hippopotamus amphibius , the river hippopotamus (or simply the hippopotamus), and several extinct species from both recent and prehistoric times. It belongs to the family Hippopotamidae, which also includes the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) and a number of extinct genera.

Etymology

The Latin word hippopotamus is derived from the ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos) 'horse' and ποταμός (potamós) 'river', together meaning 'horse of the river'. ^{[3] [4] [5]} In English, the plural is "hippopotamuses". ^[6]

Anatomy

Hippos have a barrel-shaped body, short legs, big mouths, short tails with hair at the tips, four-toed hooves with webbing, big canines used for defense, big upper lips with sparse whiskers, and two little ears on top of their heads. Their eyes, also on top of their heads, have horizontal oval-shaped pupils, and can range from brown to green. They have two nostrils that can shut underwater.^{[ citation needed ]}

Species

The species of the genus Hippopotamus include:

Extant species

• Hippopotamus amphibius , hippopotamus

Extinct species

• † Hippopotamus aethiopicus (Africa, Early Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus antiquus , (Europe, Early-Middle Pleistocene) considerably larger than living hippopotamuses
• † Hippopotamus behemoth (West Asia, Early Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus creutzburgi , Cretan dwarf hippopotamus (Early Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus gorgops (Africa, West Asia, Early Pleistocene-early Middle Pleistocene) considerably larger than living hippopotamuses
• † Hippopotamus kaisensis (Africa, Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus melitensis , Maltese hippopotamus (Middle-Late Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus minor , Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus (late Middle Pleistocene-Late Pleistocene, synonym Phanourios minor one of the smallest known hippopotamuses) ^[7]
• † Hippopotamus pentlandi , Sicilian hippopotamus (Middle-Late Pleistocene)
• † Hippopotamus sirensis (Africa, Early Pleistocene, possibly a synonym of H. gorgops) ^[8]
• †Malagasy hippopotamuses (Late Pleistocene-Holocene)
  • † Hippopotamus madagascariensis , Madagascar dwarf hippopotamus
  • † Hippopotamus lemerlei , Lemerle's dwarf hippopotamus
  • † Hippopotamus laloumena , Malagasy hippopotamus

References

1. "Fossilworks: Hippopotamus". Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
2. "Fossilworks: Hippopotamus amphibius". Archived from the original on 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
3. ἱπποπόταμος, ἵππος, ποταμός . Liddell, Henry George ; Scott, Robert ; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
4. "Hippopotamus". Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary . Retrieved 18 July 2007.
5. Harper, Douglas. "hippopotamus". Online Etymology Dictionary .
6. "Plural of hippopotamus". Oxford English Dictionary . Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
7. Hooijer, Dirk Albert (1952). "Fact and Fiction in Hippopotamology (Sampling the History of Scientific Error)" . Osiris. 10: 109–116. doi:10.1086/368549. JSTOR   301810. S2CID   143556059 . Retrieved 16 June 2021.
8. van der Made J, Sahnouni M & Boulaghraief K. 2017. Hippopotamus gorgops from El Kherba (Algeria) and the context of its biogeography. In Proceedings of the II Meeting of African Prehistory: Burgos 15-16 April, 2015, Sahnouni M, Semaw S, Rios Garaizar J (eds). CENIEH: Burgos; 135–169.

Media related to Hippopotamus at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Hippopotamus at Wikispecies