| Hippopotamus creutzburgi Temporal range: Pleistocene |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Hippopotamidae |
| Genus: | Hippopotamus |
| Species: | †H. creutzburgi |
| Binomial name | |
| † Hippopotamus creutzburgi Boekschoten & Sondaar, 1966[1] |
|
Hippopotamus creutzburgi 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.[2]
Two subspecies have been named: Hippopotamus creutzburgi creutzburgi and the smaller Hippopotamus creutzburgi parvus.[3]
Bones of the H. creutzburgi were found by Dorothea Bate on the Katharo plateau, in eastern Crete, in the 1920s.[4]
A similar species, the Cyprus Dwarf Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus minor) lived on the island of Cyprus until the Holocene. It was smaller than both species of Cretan hippo.