Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus | |
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Restoration of Hippopotamus creutzburgi | |
Information | |
Range | Crete |
Scientific Classification | |
Kingdom | Animalia |
Phylum | Chordata |
Class | Mammalia |
Order | Artiodactyla |
Family | Hippopotamidae |
Genus | Hippopotamus |
Species | †H. creutzburgi |
Conservation Status | |
Extinct |
The Cretan dwarf hippopotamus is an extinct species of hippopotamus which lived on the island of Crete. Hippopopotamus colonized Crete probably 800,000 years ago and lived there during the Middle Pleistocene.
Two subspecies have been named: Hippopotamus creutzburgi creutzburgi and the smaller Hippopotamus creutzburgi parvus.
Bones of H. creutzburgi were found by Dorothea Bate on the Katharo plateau, in eastern Crete, in the 1920s.
A similar species, the Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus (Hippopotamus minor) lived on the island of Cyprus until the Holocene. It was smaller than either species of Cretan dwarf hippo.