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{{Taxobox
{{Taxobox
|name = ''Kenyapotamus''
|fossil_range = [[Middle Miocene]] to [[Late Miocene]]
|fossil_range = [[Middle Miocene]] to [[Late Miocene]]
|regnum = [[Animal]]ia
|regnum = [[Animal]]ia
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{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


[[Category:Prehistoric mammals of Africa]]
[[Category:Extinct hippopotamuses]]
[[Category:Extinct hippopotamuses]]
[[Category:Miocene mammals]]
[[Category:Megafauna of Africa]]
[[Category:Megafauna of Africa]]
[[Category:Extinct mammals of Africa]]
[[Category:Miocene mammals]]
[[Category:Prehistoric even-toed ungulates]]
[[Category:Prehistoric mammals of Africa]]





Revision as of 13:14, 19 January 2013

Kenyapotamus
Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Late Miocene
Scientific classification
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Phylum:
Class:
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Genus:
Kenyapotamus

Pickford, 1983[1]
Species

K coryndoni and
K. ternani

Kenyapotamus is a possible ancestor of living hippopotamids that lived in Africa roughly 16 million to 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch. Its name reflects that its fossils were first found in modern-day Kenya.

Although little is known about the Kenyapotamus, its dental pattern bore similarities to that of the genus Xenohyus, a European tayassuid from the Early Miocene. This led some scientists to conclude that hippopotami were most closely related to modern peccaries and pigs.[2]

Recent molecular research has suggested that hippopotamids are more closely related to cetaceans than to other artiodactyls. A morphological analysis of fossil artiodactyls and whales, which also included Kenyapotamus, strongly supported a relationship between hippopotamids and the anatomically similar family Anthracotheriidae. Two archaic whales (Pakicetus and Artiocetus) formed the sister group of the hippopotamid-anthracotheriid clade, but this relationship was weakly supported.[3]

References

  1. ^ Pickford, Martin (1983). "On the origins of Hippopotamidae together with descriptions of two new species, a new genus and a new subfamily from the Miocene of Kenya". Geobios. 16 (2). Lyon: 193–217. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(83)80019-9.
  2. ^ Petronio, C. (1995): Note on the taxonomy of Pleistocene hippopotamuses. Ibex 3: 53-55. PDF fulltext
  3. ^ Boisserie, Jean-Renaud (2005). "The position of Hippopotamidae within Cetartiodactyla". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (5): 1537–1541. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.1537B. doi:10.1073/pnas.0409518102. PMC 547867. PMID 15677331. Retrieved 2007-06-09. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)