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Kenyapotamus
 
 
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Kenyapotamus ("(Dweller) in the River of Kenya") is an extinct ancestor of the modern Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly herbivore African mammal, one of only two Extant taxon species in the scientific classification Hippopotamidae ....
 which lived in Africa roughly 16 million to 8 million years ago during the Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
 epoch. Its name is derived because its fossils were first found in modern-day Kenya
Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
.

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.






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Kenyapotamus ("(Dweller) in the River of Kenya") is an extinct ancestor of the modern Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly herbivore African mammal, one of only two Extant taxon species in the scientific classification Hippopotamidae ....
 which lived in Africa roughly 16 million to 8 million years ago during the Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
 epoch. Its name is derived because its fossils were first found in modern-day Kenya
Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
.

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
Peccary

Peccaries are medium-sized mammals of the family Tayassuidae. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are swine and possibly Hippopotamidae....
 and pigs
Suidae

'Suidae' is the biological family to which pigs and their relatives belong. Up to sixteen species are currently recognized, including the domestic pig Sus scrofa or S....
.

Recent molecular research has suggested that hippopotamids
Hippopotamidae

Hippopotamuses are the members of the family Hippopotamidae. They are the only extant Artiodactyla which walk on four toes on each foot....
 are more closely related to cetacea
Cetacea

The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general....
ns 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
Anthracotheriidae

Anthracotheriidae is a family of extinct, hippopotamus-like artiodactyl ungulates related to hippopotamuses and Cetaceas. The oldest genus, Elomeryx, first appeared during the Middle Eocene in Asia....
. Two archaic whales (Pakicetus
Pakicetus

Pakicetus is a genus of extinct cetaceans found in the early Eocene of Pakistan, hence their name. The strata where the fossils were found was then part of the coast of the Tethys Sea....
 and Artiocetus
Artiocetus

Artiocetus clavis is an extinct genus of early whales belonging to the family Protocedidae. Their name arises from a combination of Cetacean and Artiodactyl, as this fossil was the first to show that early whales possessed artiodactyl-like ankles....
) formed the sister group of the hippopotamid-anthracotheriid clade, but this relationship was weakly supported.