Hippos colonized Europe from Africa in several waves, most likely by numerous types of the genus Hippopotamusconsisting of the typical hippo that is just discovered in sub-Saharan Africa.

Throughout their optimum geographical circulation in Europe, hippos varied from the British Isles in the northwest to the Iberian and Italian peninsulas in the south.

Their existence in the fossil record normally suggests temperate conditions with denser plants and open water bodies.

Their origin and relationships to living African typical hippos and the specific age of their termination in main Europe, nevertheless, still stay uncertain.

“Until now, it was thought that typical hippos ended up being extinct in main Europe around 115,000 years earlier, with completion of the last interglacial duration,” stated co-senior author Professor Wilfried Rosendahl, basic director of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim.

“Our research study shows that hippos populated the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany at some point in between roughly 47,000 and 31,000 years earlier.”

In the research study, Professor Rosendahl and coworkers analyzed 19 hippo specimens from fossil areas of the Upper Rhine Graben.

“The Upper Rhine Graben is an essential continental environment archive,” stated research study co-author Dr. Ronny Friedrich, a scientist at the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie.

“Animal bones that have actually made it through for countless years in gravel and sand deposits are an important source for research study.”

“It’s fantastic how well the bones have actually been protected,” he included.

“At lots of skeletal stays it was possible to take samples appropriate for analysis– that is not a provided after such a long period of time.”

The group’s analysis of ancient DNA revealed that European Ice Age hippos are carefully associated to living African hippos and come from the very same types.

The radiocarbon dating verified their existence throughout a milder weather stage in the center Weichselian.

An extra genome-wide analysis showed really low hereditary variety, recommending that the population in the Upper Rhine Graben was little and separated.

These outcomes and more fossil proof reveal that heat-loving hippos appeared in the exact same amount of time as types adjusted to cold temperature levels, such as mammoths and woolly rhinos.

“The outcomes show that hippos did not disappear from middle Europe at the end of the last interglacial, as formerly presumed,” stated research study very first author Dr. Patrick Arnold, a scientist at the University of Potsdam.

“Therefore, we must re-analyze other continental European hippo fossils typically credited to the last interglacial duration.”

“The present research study supplies essential brand-new insights which remarkably show that the Ice Age was not the exact same all over, however regional peculiarities taken together form an intricate total photo– comparable to a puzzle,” Professor Rosendahl stated.

“It would now be fascinating and crucial to even more take a look at other heat-loving animal types, associated up until now to the last interglacial.”

The outcomes were released on October 8, 2025 in the journal Existing Biology

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Patrick Arnold et alAncient DNA and dating proof for the dispersal of hippos into main Europe throughout the last glacial. Present Biologyreleased online October 8, 2025; doi: 10.1016/ j.cub.2025.09.035