Overview

• Radiocarbon dating of 19 specimens from the Upper Rhine Graben places common hippos in southwestern Germany between roughly 47,000 and 31,000 years ago.
• Genome analyses identify the animals as Hippopotamus amphibius and reveal very low genetic diversity, consistent with a small enclave.
• The dates fall within a milder Weichselian interval when hippos overlapped in time locally with cold-adapted species such as mammoths and woolly rhinos.
• The findings overturn the long-held view that hippos vanished from central Europe at the end of the last interglacial about 115,000 years ago.
• The authors call for re-dating and genetic testing of other European hippo fossils, and the research appears in Current Biology on October 8, 2025.