The oldest fossil hippopotamus (Hippopotamus laloumena) of Madagascar (Belobaka, Mahajanga Province)

Martine Faure (1, 2) , Claude Guérin (2) , Dominique Genty (3) , Dominique Gommery (4) , Beby Ramanivosoa (5)

1 UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2
2 PEPS - PaleoEnvironnements et PaleobioSphere
3 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
4 DEHIPE - Dynamique de l'évolution humaine : individus, populations, espèces [Paris]
5 UFR des Sciences

The Upper Pleistocene site Belobaka XVII (about 20,000 years) has yielded some Hippopotami remains included in a very hard breccia. Among this material two lower premolars, a juvenile calcaneus, two juvenile metatarsals and a first abaxial phalange have been cleaned and can be studied. They belong to Hippopotamus laloumena Faure and Guerin, 1990, allowed us to know for the first time the P/2 and P/3 of that species and confirm its validity. Belobaka is then the third Malagasyan site where H. laloumena has been found, and the first which yielded Pleistocene hippopotami remains

Domains: Paleontology

Martine Faure, Claude Guérin, Dominique Genty, Dominique Gommery, Beby Ramanivosoa. The oldest fossil hippopotamus (Hippopotamus laloumena) of Madagascar (Belobaka, Mahajanga Province). Comptes Rendus. Palevol, 2010, 9 (4), pp.155-162. ⟨10.1016/j.crpv.2010.04.002⟩. ⟨insu-00672452⟩