''Hippopotamus pentlandi'' is an extinct
hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
from
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
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. It arrived during the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
. It is the largest of the
insular dwarf
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is disti ...
hippos known from the Pleistocene of the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
, "at most 20% smaller than the mainland forms".
It was present in Sicily until at least the latest Middle Pleistocene around 120 kya.
See also
*
Maltese hippopotamus
''Hippopotamus melitensis'' is an extinct hippopotamus from Malta. It arrived after the Messinian salinity crisisHunt, Christopher O., Schembri, Patrick J.Quaternary Environments and Biogeography of the Maltese Islands, page 31, access in 13/03/ ...
*
Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus
*
Cretan dwarf hippopotamus
''Hippopotamus creutzburgi'', the Cretan dwarf hippopotamus, is an extinct species of hippopotamus from the island of Crete. ''Hippopopotamus'' colonized Crete probably 800,000 years ago and lived there during the Middle Pleistocene. Bones of ''H ...
References
External links
Ferrara University MuseumPhoto of ''Hippopotamus pentlandi''
Extinct hippopotamuses
Prehistoric mammals of Europe
Pleistocene even-toed ungulates
Messinian
Fossil taxa described in 1832
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