Middle Pleistocene Hippopotamuses from the Italian Peninsula: An Overview
Beniamino Mecozzi,
Alessio Iannucci,
Marta Arzarello,
Marco Carpentieri,
Marie-Hélène Moncel,
Carlo Peretto,
Benedetto Sala,
Raffaele Sardella
Affiliations
Beniamino Mecozzi
Department of Earth Sciences (PaleoFactory), Sapienza University of Rome, I-00185 Rome, Italy
Alessio Iannucci
Department of Geosciences, Section of Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany
Marta Arzarello
Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
Marco Carpentieri
Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
Marie-Hélène Moncel
UMR 7194 Natural History of Prehistoric Humans (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Department of Human and Environment, National Museum of Natural History, F-66720 Paris, France
Carlo Peretto
Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
Benedetto Sala
Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
Raffaele Sardella
Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy
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.
