Dinopedia
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Archaeopotamus
Temporal range: Late Miocene – Late Pliocene
Archaeopotamus harvardi by sinammonite-d6rrh84
A life restoration of Titanotylopus nebraskensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Hippopotamidae
Subfamily: Hippopotaminae
Genus: Archaeopotamus
Boisserie, 2005
Referred species
  • Archaeopotamus harvardi (Coryndon 1977)
  • Archaeopotamus lothagamensis (Weston, 2000)
  • Archaeopotamus qeshta (Boisserie et al. 2017)

Archaeopotamus is an extinct genus of hippopotamus that lived between 7.5 and 1.8 million years ago in Africa and the Middle East. The genus was described in 2005 to encompass species of hippos that were previously grouped in Hexaprotodon.

Archaeopotamus means "the ancient of the river". Of all identified hippos, only Kenyapotamus is older. Kenyapotamus, however, is only known from partial fossils; Archaeopotamus is the oldest well-identified hippo.

Characteristics[]

Distribution[]

Evolution[]

Gallery[]

Archaeopotamus/Gallery

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