Paleontologists have unearthed an estimated 80 dwarf hippo’ fossils in recent digs at the site just outside the resort of Ayia Napa on Cyprus’ southeastern coast.

The dwarf hippopotamuses were herbivores, like their modern cousins, but were only about 2 1/2 feet (0.76 m) tall and 4 feet long (1.21 m). Unlike modern hippos, whose upturned nostrils seem designed for swimming, “Cypriot hippos” had low-slung nostrils better suited to foraging on land.

Scientists said the fossils show the Cypriot hippos had legs and feet adapted to land, enabling them to stand on their hind legs to reach tree branches.

Experts believe hippos arrived on Cyprus between 100,000 to 250,000 years ago, and likely got smaller to adapt to the hilly island landscape. But scientists do not know how the animals reached Cyprus, which has never been physically linked to another land mass.

Paleontologists theorize hippos may have swum or floated here during a Pleistocene ice age from land that is now Turkey or Syria. They may have clung to tree trunks and other debris during the crossing.

80 dwarf hippo fossils found on Cyprus’ coast
Editor: Han Lin
Source: www.chinaview.cn (Xinhuanet)