Hippopotamus behemoth
Hippopotamus behemoth is an extinct species of hippopotamus from the Early Pleistocene of the Levant. Fossils of it, and its probable ancestor, H. gorgops, are found in the 'Ubeidiya site in the southern Israel, dating to the Early Pleistocene, around 1.4 million years ago.

Ilovehippopotamuses · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- HippopotamusPBDB
- Diet
- grazer, browserPBDB, for Hippopotamidae
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB, for Hippopotamus
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
4 occurrences of Hippopotamus behemoth on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
3 formations
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The named rock units Hippopotamus behemoth has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Hippopotamus behemoth and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Hippopotamus behemoth and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
46 taxa- Equus3 sites
- Praemegaceros verticornis3 sites
- Canis etruscus2 sites
- Cervidae2 sites
- Gazella2 sites
- Hippotragus2 sites
- Hypolagus brachygnathus2 sites
- Hystrix2 sites
- Kolpochoerus olduvaiensis2 sites
- Lutra2 sites
- Lynx2 sites
- Pelorovis2 sites
- Stephanorhinus etruscus2 sites
- Sus strozzii2 sites
- Ursus etruscus2 sites
- Vulpes2 sites
- Antilopini1 site
- Apodemus1 site
- Arvicola1 site
- Barbus1 site
- Bison priscus1 site
- Bos primigenius1 site
- Camelus1 site
- Canis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Hippopotamus behemoth, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
2 references- Les Hippopotamidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) du gisement pleistocene ancien d'Oubeidiyeh3
- Les grands mammiferes du gisement Pleistocene Moyen de Latamne (Vallee de l'Oronte, Syrie)1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Hippopotamus behemoth
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ilovehippopotamuses
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Hippopotamus behemoth was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itHippopotamus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Faure 1986