Archaeopotamus

Archaeopotamus; Temporal range: Late Miocene to Late Pliocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Hippopotamidae
Subfamily:	Hippopotaminae
Genus:	†Archaeopotamus; Boisserie, 2005
Species
	†A. pantanelli (Joleaud 1920); †A. harvardi (Coryndon 1977); †A. lothagamensis (Weston 2000); †A. qeshta (Boisserie et al. 2017)

Archaeopotamus is an extinct genus of Hippopotamidae that lived between 7.5 and 2.58 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.^[1]

^ ^a ^b Boisserie, Jean-Renaud (2005). "The phylogeny and taxonomy of Hippopotamidae (Mammalia: Artiodactyla): a review based on morphology and cladistic analysis". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 143: 1–26. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00138.x.

[Boisserie-1] Boisserie, Jean-Renaud (2005). "The phylogeny and taxonomy of Hippopotamidae (Mammalia: Artiodactyla): a review based on morphology and cladistic analysis". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 143: 1–26. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00138.x.

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