''Kenyapotamus'' is a possible ancestor of living

hippopotamuses The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...

that lived roughly 16 million to 8 million years ago during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

epoch. Its name reflects that its fossils were first found in modern-day

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Although little is known about ''Kenyapotamus'', its dental pattern bore similarities to that of the genus ''

Xenohyus ''Xenohyus'' was an extinct genus of suids that existed during the Miocene in Europe. It showed many similarities to peccaries A peccary (also javelina or skunk pig) is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (Ne ...

'', a European

suid The Unix access rights flags setuid and setgid (short for ''set user identity'' and ''set group identity'') allow users to run an executable with the file system permissions of the executable's owner or group respectively and to change behaviour ...

from the Early Miocene. This led some scientists to conclude that hippopotami were most closely related to modern

peccaries A peccary (also javelina or skunk pig) is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North A ...

and suids.Petronio, C. (1995): Note on the taxonomy of Pleistocene hippopotamuses. ''Ibex'' 3: 53-55
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Recent molecular research has suggested that

are more closely related to

cetacea Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...

ns than to other

artiodactyl The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

s. A morphological analysis of fossil artiodactyls and whales, which also included ''Kenyapotamus'', strongly supported a relationship between hippos and the anatomically similar family

Anthracotheriidae Anthracotheriidae is a paraphyletic family of extinct, hippopotamus-like artiodactyl ungulates related to hippopotamuses and whales. The oldest genus, ''Elomeryx'', first appeared during the middle Eocene in Asia. They thrived in Africa and Euras ...

. Two archaic whales (''

Pakicetus ''Pakicetus'' is an extinct genus of amphibious cetacean of the family Pakicetidae, which was endemic to Pakistan during the Eocene, about 50 million years ago. It was a wolf-like animal, about to long, and lived in and around water where it a ...

'' and ''

Artiocetus ''Artiocetus'' is an extinct genus of early whales belonging to the family Protocetidae. It was a close relative to ''Rodhocetus'' and its tarsals indicate it resembled an artiodactyl. Etymology ''Artiocetus name arises from a combination ...

'') formed the sister group of the hippopotamid-anthracotheriid clade, but this relationship was weakly supported.

References

Extinct hippopotamuses Miocene even-toed ungulates Miocene mammals of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1983 Prehistoric even-toed ungulate genera {{paleo-eventoedungulate-stub