first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Middle Pleistocene Hippopotamuses from the Italian Peninsula: An Overview by Beniamino Mecozzi 1,*,Alessio Iannucci 2ORCID,Marta Arzarello 3ORCID,Marco Carpentieri 3,Marie-Hélène Moncel 4,Carlo Peretto 3,Benedetto Sala 3 andRaffaele Sardella 3 1 Department of Earth Sciences (PaleoFactory), Sapienza University of Rome, I-00185 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Geosciences, Section of Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany 3 Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy 4 UMR 7194 Natural History of Prehistoric Humans (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Department of Human and Environment, National Museum of Natural History, F-66720 Paris, France * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Quaternary 2024, 7(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat7020020 Submission received: 19 January 2024 / Revised: 19 March 2024 / Accepted: 21 March 2024 / Published: 22 April 2024 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals Biochronology and Paleoecology of the Euro-Mediterranean Quaternary) Downloadkeyboard_arrow_down Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract Our work presents an updated overview of the Italian Middle Pleistocene records of hippopotamuses, including the two species Hippopotamus antiquus and Hippopotamus amphibius. In addition to reviewing several well-known fossils in the literature, a large number of samples are described herein for the first time. Following the recent results published in the literature, where the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (ca. MIS 13) was confirmed to belong to H. amphibius, one of the aims of this work was to investigate the H. antiquus–H. amphibius transition. A morphological analysis applied to a large sample confirmed the validity of the arrangement of the enamel ridges of the external surfaces of the lower canines as a diagnostic character for specific identifications. Finally, biometric analyses allowed us to test the size variability during the Middle Pleistocene, which confirmed that H. antiquus was generally larger than H. amphibius. Nevertheless, the remains of H. antiquus dated to ca. 600 ka show a reduced size when compared to older fossils of the same taxon, probably as a response to severe glacial conditions that occurred during MIS 16.
Middle Pleistocene Hippopotamuses from the Italian Peninsula: An Overview
Arzarello, MartaWriting – Review & Editing
;Carpentieri, MarcoVisualization
;Sala, BenedettoVisualization
;
2024
Abstract
first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Middle Pleistocene Hippopotamuses from the Italian Peninsula: An Overview by Beniamino Mecozzi 1,*,Alessio Iannucci 2ORCID,Marta Arzarello 3ORCID,Marco Carpentieri 3,Marie-Hélène Moncel 4,Carlo Peretto 3,Benedetto Sala 3 andRaffaele Sardella 3 1 Department of Earth Sciences (PaleoFactory), Sapienza University of Rome, I-00185 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Geosciences, Section of Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany 3 Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy 4 UMR 7194 Natural History of Prehistoric Humans (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Department of Human and Environment, National Museum of Natural History, F-66720 Paris, France * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Quaternary 2024, 7(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat7020020 Submission received: 19 January 2024 / Revised: 19 March 2024 / Accepted: 21 March 2024 / Published: 22 April 2024 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Mammals Biochronology and Paleoecology of the Euro-Mediterranean Quaternary) Downloadkeyboard_arrow_down Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract Our work presents an updated overview of the Italian Middle Pleistocene records of hippopotamuses, including the two species Hippopotamus antiquus and Hippopotamus amphibius. In addition to reviewing several well-known fossils in the literature, a large number of samples are described herein for the first time. Following the recent results published in the literature, where the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (ca. MIS 13) was confirmed to belong to H. amphibius, one of the aims of this work was to investigate the H. antiquus–H. amphibius transition. A morphological analysis applied to a large sample confirmed the validity of the arrangement of the enamel ridges of the external surfaces of the lower canines as a diagnostic character for specific identifications. Finally, biometric analyses allowed us to test the size variability during the Middle Pleistocene, which confirmed that H. antiquus was generally larger than H. amphibius. Nevertheless, the remains of H. antiquus dated to ca. 600 ka show a reduced size when compared to older fossils of the same taxon, probably as a response to severe glacial conditions that occurred during MIS 16.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
