Malagasy Hippopotamus
Encyclopedia
Several species of Malagasy Hippopotamus (also known as Malagasy Dwarf Hippopotamus or Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus or Madagascan instead of Malagasy) lived on the island of Madagascar
but are now believed to be extinct. The animals were very similar to the extant Hippopotamus
and Pygmy Hippopotamus
. The fossil
record suggests that at least one species of hippopotamus lived until about 1,000 years ago, and other evidence suggests that the species may have survived until much more recently. The taxonomy of these animals is not resolved and not widely studied. The various species are believed to have survived into the Holocene
era.
The Malagasy Hippopotamus was first described in the mid-19th century by Alfred Grandidier
, who unearthed nearly 50 individual hippos from a dried-up swamp near Lake Ranobe, a few miles from the Mozambique Channel
. As many as four different species of hippopotamus were subsequently identified by various researchers. In a careful revision of the fossil record of the Malagasy Hippos, Solweig Stuenes concluded that there were only two species of hippopotamus which she classified as Hippopotamus lemerlei and Hippopotamus madagascariensis. In 1990, Faure and Guerin discovered a distinct third species of hippo, which they named Hippopotamus laloumena. In a review of Stuenes work, Harris suggested that Hip. madagascariensis had much in common with the extant pygmy hippopotamus
of West Africa. Since the extant pygmy hippopotamus was placed in the genus Hexaprotodon
, he used the name Hex. madagascariensis. Some taxonomists, however, consider the modern pygmy hippo to belong to the genus Choeropsis, so this species may also be classified as C. madagascariensis.
The fossil record of the Malagasy Hippopotamus is extensive. At least seven hippopotamus bones show unequivocal signs of butchery, suggesting that they survived until humans arrived on Madagascar
. The evidence of humans butchering the hippos also suggests their extinction may have been, in part, due to humans. Despite the discovery of many fossils, the hippos of Madagascar are not very well studied, perhaps because researchers are interested in some of the more exotic megafauna of Madagascar, such as the giant lemur
s and the elephant bird
s.
s ever to have lived on Madagascar unless brought there by humans.
of modern Africa. H. lemerlei also shared the high-orbits that make it easier for the hippopotamus to see while in the water. The skull of H. lemerlei also resembled that of the modern hippopotamus, but with consistent size differences, indicating that H. lemerlei was a sexually dimorphic
species.
Although a clear relative to the common hippopotamus, H. lemerlei was much smaller, roughly the size of the modern pygmy hippopotamus
. The largest specimens were 6.5 ft (2 m) long and 2.5 ft (0.7 m) tall. The ancestors of H. lemerlei may have been full-sized hippos who shrunk through the process of insular dwarfism
. A similar dwarfing process has occurred with hippos in many Mediterranean islands such as with the Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus
or the Cyprus Dwarf Hippopotamus
.
Because H. lemerlei reached its size through dwarfing, it is properly known as the Malagasy Dwarf Hippopotamus, though this term is sometimes applied to the other species of Malagasy Hippos. Bones of H. lemerlei have been dated to about 1,000 years ago (980±200 radiocarbon years
before present).
and habitat, however, suggested a closer relationship to the modern pygmy hippopotamus.
Like the modern pygmy hippopotamus, the Malagasy Pygmy Hippo has eyes on the side of its head rather than high orbits and similar teeth to the pygmy hippopotamus. The Malagasy Pygmy Hippo is similarly less aquatic, with many of its fossils found in the forested highlands of Madagascar
.
Fossils of both the Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus and H. lemerlei show a cursorial
adaptation, distinct from the hippos on the African continent, and they would have been much better runners. This common trait is a possible indicator that both species of Malagasy Hippo descended from a common ancestor, and that the similarities to the modern hippopotamus and pygmy hippopotamus are a case of parallel evolution
.
The Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus is classified along with the modern Liberian Pygmy Hippopotamus, but researchers sometimes place the Liberian Hippo in two different genera. The pygmy hippopotamus was originally classified as Choeropsis by Samuel G. Morton in 1849. In 1977, the pygmy hippopotamus was reclassified as a member of Hexaprotodon
along with fossil species from Asia. Further examination, however, has discovered difference between the pygmy hippopotamus and the Asian hippos, prompting its reclassification by some as Choeropsis.
word for hippopotamus), which was a distinct species. Little is known about the species, because it was identified with only a lower jaw
and limb bones, recovered from a site near Mananjary
on the east coast of Madagascar.
The fossils clearly belong to a hippopotamus, but one much larger than any previously described Madagascan species. From what is known, the species closely resembled the modern hippopotamus, but was somewhat smaller. It is also known as the Lesser Madagascan Hippopotamus.
became the French governor of Madagascar and he wrote in his Histoire de la grande isle de Madagascar about hearing stories from the Malagasy about an animal called the Mangarsahoc which closely resembled the hippopotamus. In different regions of Madagascar, stories were recorded of the tsy-aomby-aomby, the omby-rano, and the laloumena, all animals that resembled hippopotami, but few other animals on the island. In 1902, a colonial administrator named Raybaud asserted that stories he heard in the Highlands could only be about Malagasy Hippos still living as late as 1878. The strength of these oral traditions led the IUCN to classify the Malagasy Hippopotami as recent extinctions.
In the 1990s, Burney, who was studying recent extinctions in Madagascar, collected tales about a creature called the Kilopilopitsofy that had been described by villages in the town of Belo-sur-mer, a small fishing village on the west coast. Several villagers independently described an animal that, as recently as 1976 had entered their village, was the size of a cow, was dark pigmented, grunted a lot, and when threatened, fled underwater. No known animal on Madagascar fits the description but the animal seemed remarkably like a hippopotamus.
One man in the village could accurately mimic the sound of many animals, and when asked to imitate the Kilopilopitsofy, he made noises very similar to that of a hippopotamus, even though he had never left the island and said he had never seen an African hippo. When shown photos, others also identified a hippopotamus-like animal, but with larger ears. Several described the creature's last appearance in 1976.
Burney was reluctant to publish the study for fear of being labeled a cryptozoologist
, but eventually published the results in American Anthropologist
. Burney concluded that while the villagers had possibly encountered a Malagasy Hippopotamus, it was also possible that the stories were inaccurate—a combination of misidentified animals, old folk traditions, and information the villagers had gathered from modern paleontology.
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
but are now believed to be extinct. The animals were very similar to the extant Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
and Pygmy Hippopotamus
Pygmy Hippopotamus
The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal...
. The fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
record suggests that at least one species of hippopotamus lived until about 1,000 years ago, and other evidence suggests that the species may have survived until much more recently. The taxonomy of these animals is not resolved and not widely studied. The various species are believed to have survived into the Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
era.
Discovery and taxonomy
Alfred Grandidier
Alfred Grandidier was a French naturalist and explorer.From a very wealthy family, he and his brother, Ernest Grandidier , undertook a voyage around the world...
, who unearthed nearly 50 individual hippos from a dried-up swamp near Lake Ranobe, a few miles from the Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel
The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar...
. As many as four different species of hippopotamus were subsequently identified by various researchers. In a careful revision of the fossil record of the Malagasy Hippos, Solweig Stuenes concluded that there were only two species of hippopotamus which she classified as Hippopotamus lemerlei and Hippopotamus madagascariensis. In 1990, Faure and Guerin discovered a distinct third species of hippo, which they named Hippopotamus laloumena. In a review of Stuenes work, Harris suggested that Hip. madagascariensis had much in common with the extant pygmy hippopotamus
Pygmy Hippopotamus
The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal...
of West Africa. Since the extant pygmy hippopotamus was placed in the genus Hexaprotodon
Hexaprotodon
Hexaprotodon is a genus of Hippopotamidae that is sometimes applied to the pygmy hippopotamus. Pygmy hippos may be classified as either Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis...
, he used the name Hex. madagascariensis. Some taxonomists, however, consider the modern pygmy hippo to belong to the genus Choeropsis, so this species may also be classified as C. madagascariensis.
The fossil record of the Malagasy Hippopotamus is extensive. At least seven hippopotamus bones show unequivocal signs of butchery, suggesting that they survived until humans arrived on Madagascar
History of Madagascar
The history of Madagascar is distinguished by the early isolation of the landmass from the ancient supercontinents containing Africa and India, and by the island's late colonization by human settlers arriving in outrigger canoes from the Sunda islands between 200 BC and 500 AD...
. The evidence of humans butchering the hippos also suggests their extinction may have been, in part, due to humans. Despite the discovery of many fossils, the hippos of Madagascar are not very well studied, perhaps because researchers are interested in some of the more exotic megafauna of Madagascar, such as the giant lemur
Megaladapis
Koala lemurs, genus Megaladapis, belong to the family Megaladapidae, consisting of three extinct species of lemurs that once inhabited the island of Madagascar. The largest measured between in length.-Appearance and habits:...
s and the elephant bird
Elephant bird
Elephant birds are an extinct family of flightless birds found only on the island of Madagascar and comprising the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis.-Description:...
s.
Species
Although not well-studied, there is growing acceptance of these three species of Malagasy Hippopotamus. It is not known when or exactly how these hippos arrived on the island of Madagascar. As hippos are semi-aquatic, it is possible that they survived the 400 km (248 mi) trek across the channel, although presumably when the water was shallower and there were perhaps small islands along the way. Is it possible that the three species of hippopotamus represent three distinct and successful colonizations of the island. Hippos are the only ungulateUngulate
Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive...
s ever to have lived on Madagascar unless brought there by humans.
H. lemerlei
Hippopotamus lemerlei bones have been mostly discovered in the rivers and lakes of western Madagascar, suggesting a riparian lifestyle, very similar to that of the modern hippopotamusHippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
of modern Africa. H. lemerlei also shared the high-orbits that make it easier for the hippopotamus to see while in the water. The skull of H. lemerlei also resembled that of the modern hippopotamus, but with consistent size differences, indicating that H. lemerlei was a sexually dimorphic
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...
species.
Although a clear relative to the common hippopotamus, H. lemerlei was much smaller, roughly the size of the modern pygmy hippopotamus
Pygmy Hippopotamus
The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal...
. The largest specimens were 6.5 ft (2 m) long and 2.5 ft (0.7 m) tall. The ancestors of H. lemerlei may have been full-sized hippos who shrunk through the process of insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals – typically mammals – when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is distinct from the intentional creation of dwarf...
. A similar dwarfing process has occurred with hippos in many Mediterranean islands such as with the Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus
Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus
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....
or the Cyprus Dwarf Hippopotamus
Cyprus Dwarf Hippopotamus
The Cyprus Dwarf Hippopotamus or Cypriot Pygmy Hippopotamus is an extinct species of hippopotamus that inhabited the island of Cyprus until the early Holocene....
.
Because H. lemerlei reached its size through dwarfing, it is properly known as the Malagasy Dwarf Hippopotamus, though this term is sometimes applied to the other species of Malagasy Hippos. Bones of H. lemerlei have been dated to about 1,000 years ago (980±200 radiocarbon years
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
before present).
H. madagascariensis
Also called the Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus, this species was originally classified as hippopotamus along with H. lemerlei, and indeed the two species were roughly the same size. A review of their morphologyMorphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
and habitat, however, suggested a closer relationship to the modern pygmy hippopotamus.
Like the modern pygmy hippopotamus, the Malagasy Pygmy Hippo has eyes on the side of its head rather than high orbits and similar teeth to the pygmy hippopotamus. The Malagasy Pygmy Hippo is similarly less aquatic, with many of its fossils found in the forested highlands of Madagascar
Madagascar subhumid forests
The Madagascar subhumid forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion which originally covered most of the Central Highlands of the island of Madagascar.-Setting:...
.
Fossils of both the Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus and H. lemerlei show a cursorial
Cursorial
Cursorial is a biological term that describes an organism as being adapted specifically to run. It is typically used in conjunction with an animal's feeding habits or another important adaptation. For example, a horse can be considered a "cursorial grazer", while a wolf may be considered a...
adaptation, distinct from the hippos on the African continent, and they would have been much better runners. This common trait is a possible indicator that both species of Malagasy Hippo descended from a common ancestor, and that the similarities to the modern hippopotamus and pygmy hippopotamus are a case of parallel evolution
Parallel evolution
Parallel evolution is the development of a similar trait in related, but distinct, species descending from the same ancestor, but from different clades.-Parallel vs...
.
The Malagasy Pygmy Hippopotamus is classified along with the modern Liberian Pygmy Hippopotamus, but researchers sometimes place the Liberian Hippo in two different genera. The pygmy hippopotamus was originally classified as Choeropsis by Samuel G. Morton in 1849. In 1977, the pygmy hippopotamus was reclassified as a member of Hexaprotodon
Hexaprotodon
Hexaprotodon is a genus of Hippopotamidae that is sometimes applied to the pygmy hippopotamus. Pygmy hippos may be classified as either Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis...
along with fossil species from Asia. Further examination, however, has discovered difference between the pygmy hippopotamus and the Asian hippos, prompting its reclassification by some as Choeropsis.
H. laloumena
In 1990, Faure and Guerin described a third species of Malagasy Hippopotamus, Hippopotamus laloumena (Laloumena is a MalagasyMalagasy language
Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
word for hippopotamus), which was a distinct species. Little is known about the species, because it was identified with only a lower jaw
Mandible
The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...
and limb bones, recovered from a site near Mananjary
Mananjary, Fianarantsoa
Mananjary is a fivondronana located in Vatovavy-Fitovinany Region in Madagascar. The region has a total population of 233,697 ....
on the east coast of Madagascar.
The fossils clearly belong to a hippopotamus, but one much larger than any previously described Madagascan species. From what is known, the species closely resembled the modern hippopotamus, but was somewhat smaller. It is also known as the Lesser Madagascan Hippopotamus.
Oral legends and the Kilopilopitsofy
Although no fossil evidence has been dated within the last 1,000 years, the hippopotamus has been surprisingly common in the oral legends of the Malagasy. In 1648, Étienne de FlacourtÉtienne de Flacourt
Étienne de Flacourt was a French governor of Madagascar, born at Orléans in 1607. He was named governor of Madagascar by the French East India Company in 1648....
became the French governor of Madagascar and he wrote in his Histoire de la grande isle de Madagascar about hearing stories from the Malagasy about an animal called the Mangarsahoc which closely resembled the hippopotamus. In different regions of Madagascar, stories were recorded of the tsy-aomby-aomby, the omby-rano, and the laloumena, all animals that resembled hippopotami, but few other animals on the island. In 1902, a colonial administrator named Raybaud asserted that stories he heard in the Highlands could only be about Malagasy Hippos still living as late as 1878. The strength of these oral traditions led the IUCN to classify the Malagasy Hippopotami as recent extinctions.
In the 1990s, Burney, who was studying recent extinctions in Madagascar, collected tales about a creature called the Kilopilopitsofy that had been described by villages in the town of Belo-sur-mer, a small fishing village on the west coast. Several villagers independently described an animal that, as recently as 1976 had entered their village, was the size of a cow, was dark pigmented, grunted a lot, and when threatened, fled underwater. No known animal on Madagascar fits the description but the animal seemed remarkably like a hippopotamus.
One man in the village could accurately mimic the sound of many animals, and when asked to imitate the Kilopilopitsofy, he made noises very similar to that of a hippopotamus, even though he had never left the island and said he had never seen an African hippo. When shown photos, others also identified a hippopotamus-like animal, but with larger ears. Several described the creature's last appearance in 1976.
Burney was reluctant to publish the study for fear of being labeled a cryptozoologist
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...
, but eventually published the results in American Anthropologist
American Anthropologist
American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association . It is known for publishing a wide range of work in anthropology, including articles on cultural, biological and linguistic anthropology and archeology...
. Burney concluded that while the villagers had possibly encountered a Malagasy Hippopotamus, it was also possible that the stories were inaccurate—a combination of misidentified animals, old folk traditions, and information the villagers had gathered from modern paleontology.
External links
- Pictures of a Malagasy Hippopotamus skeleton on display at the Paleontological Museum at the University of OsloUniversity of OsloThe University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
.