Hippopotamus (genus)

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.

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

Eptomology

The word hippopotamus originates from Ancient Greek, meaning "river horse". The plural in English is 'hippopotamuses', although the Oxford Dictionary says that 'hippopotami' is also correct, but this is due to it wrongly assuming that it is a Latin word; going the Greek way would be 'hippopotamodes', but this isn't used in English.

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, 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, and two nostrils that can shut underwater.

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)^[3]
• †Hippopotamus pentlandi, Sicilian hippopotamus (Middle-Late Pleistocene)
• †Hippopotamus sirensis (Africa, Early Pleistocene, possibly a synonym of H. gorgops)^[4]
• †Malagasy hippopotamuses (Late Pleistocene-Holocene)
  • †Hippopotamus madagascariensis, Madagascar dwarf hippopotamus
  • †Hippopotamus lemerlei, Lemerle's dwarf hippopotamus
  • †Hippopotamus laloumena, Malagasy hippopotamus