Choeropotamidae, also known as Haplobunodontidae, are a family of extinct

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

, extinct herbivores, belonging to

artiodactyls The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

. They lived between the lower/middle

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

and lower

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

(about 48 - 30 million years ago) and their remains were found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Description

Choeropotamidae had the classic archaic appearance of primitive artiodactyls, with an unspecialized body and relatively small size. However, since the middle Eocene, choeropotamids began to develop some characteristics that will be found, more accentuated, in the suiforms: bunodonti molars (low and wide crown) and short legs. Partially complete fossils with shapes such as ''

Amphirhagatherium ''Amphirhagatherium'' is an extinct genus of artiodactyl that lived in northern Europe during the middle to late Eocene. The dentition of ''Amphirhagatherium'' suggests that the genus had a mixed diet of leaves and fruits likely eaten at ground ...

'' indicate that these animals still had a relatively elongated tail, slender legs shorter than those of other archaic artiodactyls, an elongated and flexible body, and a long snout. The length of these animals would not exceed 1 meter, and the weight was around 5 to 10 kilograms.

Classification

Choeropotamidae are mainly known in numerous European Eocene deposits, and only a few fossils of dubious identity have been found in Egypt and Turkey. Choeropotamids are clearly derived from primitive forms of artiodactyls such as ''

Diacodexis ''Diacodexis'' is an extinct genus of small herbivore mammals belonging to the family Dichobunidae which lived in North America, Europe and Pakistan from 55.4 mya to 46.2 mya and existing for approximately . Description ''Diacodexis'' is the ...

'', and yet they already show some specializations that recall the suiforms, although they are not their direct ancestors. Among the various genera belonging to this family are '' Haplobunodon'', '' Masillabune'', '' Choeropotamus'', '' Tapirulus'', ''

'' and '' Rhagatherium''.

References

Even-toed ungulates Prehistoric mammal families {{Paleo-eventoedungulate-stub