Range Description

Hippopotamus lemerlei is mostly known from southern localities of coastal to lowland Madagascar (see a list of locality in Stuenes 1989). Last appearance datum of Madagascan dwarf hippopotamids remains uncertain. Most recent dates were provided through 14C dating and indicate ca. 1000 AD (Dewar 1984; Burney et al. 2004). However, MacPhee and Flemming (1999) proposed it as recent on the basis of local oral tradition (Flacourt 1661; and see Burney and Ramilisonina 1999) and possible younger age of some localities. However, this may only reflect sporadic occurrence of Hippopotamus amphibius.