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103-400: Orango is known for its saltwater hippopotamuses . It was the seat of Okinka Pampa until her death in 1930. Orango's inhabitants developed a number of distinct matrimonial traditions which are unique with respect to the role played by women. Marriage is formally proposed by women — their choice of spouse is made public to the groom-to-be and the rest of the community by an offer of

206-431: A US$ 73 million exhibit to house three adult hippos, featuring a 250,000 L (55,000 imp gal; 66,000 US gal) tank. Modern hippo enclosures also have a complex filtration system for the animal's waste, an underwater viewing area for the visitors, and glass that may be up to 9 cm (3.5 in) thick and capable of holding water under pressures of 31 kPa (4.5 psi). In Egyptian mythology ,

309-632: A ballerina hippo dancing to the opera La Gioconda . The film Hugo the Hippo is set in Tanzania and involves the title character trying to escape being slaughtered with the help of local children. The Madagascar films feature a hippo named Gloria . Hippos even inspired a popular board game, Hungry Hungry Hippos . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

412-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

515-485: A dish of specially prepared fish, marinated in red palm oil . According to tradition, the offer is accepted by eating the fish, and cannot be turned down without dishonor. The marriage becomes official months later, after the bride-to-be, with no help from the groom, builds the couple a new home out of driftwood, blond grass, and mud bricks. In recent years, the island's traditions are competing with outside influences, both economic and religious. Men increasingly travel to

618-622: A factor in their eventual extinction. Isolated individual Malagasy hippos may have survived in remote pockets; in 1976, villagers described a living animal called the kilopilopitsofy , which may have been a Malagasy hippo. Hippopotamus gorgops from the Early Pleistocene to the early Middle Pleistocene of Africa and West Asia grew considerably larger than the living hippopotamus, with an estimated body mass of over 4,000 kg (8,800 lb). Hippopotamus antiquus ranged throughout Europe, extending as far north as Britain during

721-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

824-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

927-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1030-459: A great distance across South Africa . The hippo is considered to be extremely aggressive and has frequently been reported charging and attacking boats. Small boats can easily be capsized by hippos and passengers can be injured or killed by the animals, or drown in the water. In one 2014 case in Niger , a boat was capsized by a hippo and 13 people were killed. Hippos will often raid farm crops if

1133-425: A high-pitched squeal followed by a deeper, resonant call. The animals can recognise the calls of other individuals. Hippos are more likely to react to the wheeze honks of strangers than to those they are more familiar with. When threatened or alarmed, they produce exhalations, and fighting bulls will bellow loudly. Hippos are recorded to produce clicks underwater which may have echolocative properties. They have

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1236-524: A long snout. Their skeletal structures are graviportal , adapted to carrying their enormous weight, and their dense bones and low centre of gravity allows them to sink and move along the bottom of the water. Hippopotamuses have small legs (relative to other megafauna ) because the water in which they live reduces the weight burden. The toes are webbed and the pelvis rests at an angle of 45 degrees. Though chubby-looking, hippos have little fat. The eyes, ears, and nostrils of hippos are placed high on

1339-432: A variety of plants if presented with them in captivity, but their diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass, with only minimal consumption of aquatic plants. Hippos spend most of the day in water to stay cool and hydrated. Just before night begins, they leave the water to forage on land. A hippo will travel 3–5 km (1.9–3.1 mi) per night, eating around 40 kg (88 lb) of grass. By dawn, they are back in

1442-861: Is Lu the Hippo, from the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park . As of 2024, he is 64 years old. Hippopotamus amphibius arrived in Europe around 560–460,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene. The distribution of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe during the Pleistocene was largely confined to Southern Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and Greece, but extended into northwestern Europe, including Great Britain (as far north as North Yorkshire ),

1545-415: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius ) ( / ˌ h ɪ p ə ˈ p ɒ t ə m ə s / ; pl. : hippopotamuses ; often shortened to hippo ( pl. : hippos ), further qualified as the common hippopotamus , Nile hippopotamus , or river hippopotamus , is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa . It

1648-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1751-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

1854-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1957-611: Is an example of mutualism , in which the hippo benefits from the cleaning while the fish receive food. Hippo defecation creates allochthonous deposits of organic matter along the river beds. These deposits have an unclear ecological function. A 2015 study concluded hippo dung provides nutrients from terrestrial material for fish and aquatic invertebrates, while a 2018 study found that their dung can be toxic to aquatic life in large quantities, due to absorption of dissolved oxygen in water bodies. The parasitic monogenean flatworm Oculotrema hippopotami infests hippopotamus eyes, mainly

2060-524: Is around 1,480 kg (3,260 lb) for bulls and 1,365 kg (3,009 lb) for cows. Exceptionally large males have been recorded reaching 2,660 kg (5,860 lb). Male hippos appear to continue growing throughout their lives, while females reach maximum weight at around age 25. It is 2.90 to 5.05 m (9 ft 6 in to 16 ft 7 in) long, including a tail of about 35 to 56 cm (14 to 22 in) in length and 1.30 to 1.65 m (4 ft 3 in to 5 ft 5 in) tall at

2163-584: Is attributed to the disruptions caused by the Second Congo War . The poachers are believed to be Mai-Mai rebels, underpaid Congolese soldiers, and local militia groups. Reasons for poaching include the belief hippos are harmful to society, as well as financial gain. As of 2016, the Virunga hippo population appears to have increased again, possibly due to better protection from park rangers, who have worked with local fishermen. The sale of hippo meat

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2266-411: Is capable of running 30 km/h (19 mph) over short distances. Hippos inhabit rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps. Territorial bulls each preside over a stretch of water and a group of five to thirty cows and calves. Mating and birth both occur in the water. During the day, hippos remain cool by staying in water or mud, emerging at dusk to graze on grasses. While hippos rest near each other in

2369-473: Is common among small mammals such as rodents). Calves no longer need to suckle when they are a year old. Hippos coexist alongside a variety of large predators in their habitats. Nile crocodiles , lions , and spotted hyenas are known to prey on young hippos. Beyond these, adult hippos are not usually preyed upon by other animals due to their aggression and size. Cases where large lion prides have successfully preyed on adult hippos have been reported, but it

2472-809: Is generally rare. Lions occasionally prey on adults at Gorongosa National Park and calves are sometimes taken at Virunga. Crocodiles are frequent targets of hippo aggression, probably because they often inhabit the same riparian habitats; crocodiles may be either aggressively displaced or killed by hippos. In turn, very large Nile crocodiles have been observed preying occasionally on calves, "half-grown" hippos, and possibly also adult female hippos. Groups of crocodiles have also been observed finishing off still-living male hippos that were previously injured in mating battles with other males. Hippos occasionally visit cleaning stations in order to be cleaned of parasites by certain species of fishes. They signal their readiness for this service by opening their mouths wide. This

2575-487: Is illegal, but black-market sales are difficult for Virunga National Park officers to track. Hippo meat is highly valued in some areas of central Africa and the teeth may be used as a replacement for elephant ivory. A population of hippos exists in Colombia , descended from captive individuals that escaped from Pablo Escobar 's estate after his death in 1993. Their numbers grew to 100 by the 2020s and ecologists believe

2678-404: Is mostly purplish-grey or blue-black, but brownish-pink on the underside and around the eyes and ears. Their skin secretes a natural, red-coloured sunscreen substance that is sometimes referred to as "blood sweat" but is neither blood nor sweat. This secretion is initially colourless and turns red-orange within minutes, eventually becoming brown. Two highly acidic pigments have been identified in

2781-476: Is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae , the other being the pygmy hippopotamus ( Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis ). Its name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" ( ἱπποπόταμος ). After elephants and rhinoceroses , the hippopotamus is the next largest land mammal . It is also the largest extant land artiodactyl . Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates,

2884-492: Is powered by huge masseter and digastric muscles which give them large, droopy cheeks. The jaw hinge allows the animal to open its mouth at almost 180°. A folded orbicularis oris muscle allows the hippo to attain an extreme gape without tearing any tissue. On the lower jaw, the incisors and canines grow continuously, the former reaching 40 cm (16 in), while the latter can grow to up to 50 cm (20 in). The lower canines are sharpened through contact with

2987-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

3090-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

3193-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

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3296-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

3399-626: Is the genus Kenyapotamus , which lived in Africa from 15 to 9 million years ago . Hippopotamid species would spread across Africa and Eurasia, including the modern pygmy hippo. From 7.5 to 1.8 million years ago , a possible ancestor to the modern hippo, Archaeopotamus , lived in Africa and the Middle East. The oldest records of the genus Hippopotamus date to the Pliocene (5.3–2.6 million years ago). The oldest unambiguous records of

3502-734: Is typically 40 to 50 years. Donna the Hippo was one of the oldest living hippos in captivity. She lived at the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana , in the US until her death in 2012 at the age of 61. The oldest hippo ever recorded was called Bertha; she had lived in the Manila Zoo in the Philippines since it first opened in 1959. When she died in 2017, her age was estimated to be 65. The oldest living hippopotamus in captivity

3605-600: The Bouri Formation and dated to around 160,000 years ago. 4,000–5,000 year art showing hippos being hunted have been found in the Tassili n'Ajjer Mountains of the central Sahara near Djanet . The ancient Egyptians recognised the hippo as ferocious, and representations on the tombs of nobles show humans hunting them. The hippo was also known to the Greeks and Romans . The Greek historian Herodotus described

3708-559: The Early and Middle Pleistocene epochs, before being replaced by the modern H. amphibius in Europe during the latter part of the Middle Pleistocene. The Pleistocene also saw a number of dwarf species evolve on several Mediterranean islands, including Crete ( Hippopotamus creutzburgi ), Cyprus (the Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus , Hippopotamus minor ), Malta ( Hippopotamus melitensis ), and Sicily ( Hippopotamus pentlandi ). Of these,

3811-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

3914-748: The IUCN Red List drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as vulnerable , with a stable population estimated between 115,000 and 130,000 animals. The hippo population has declined most dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By 2005, the population in Virunga National Park had dropped to 800 or 900 from around 29,000 in the mid-1970s. This decline

4017-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

4120-436: The fossil record , show their closest living relatives are cetaceans ( whales , dolphins , and porpoises ). The common ancestor of hippos and whales branched off from Ruminantia and the rest of the even-toed ungulates; the cetacean and hippo lineages split soon afterwards.   Tylopoda   Suina        Ruminantia   Hippopotamidae   Cetacea The most recent theory of

4223-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

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4326-758: The wet season . Male hippos always have mobile spermatozoa and can breed year-round. After becoming pregnant, a female hippo will typically not begin ovulation again for 17 months. Hippos mate in the water, with the cow remaining under the surface, her head emerging periodically to draw breath. Cows give birth in seclusion and return within 10 to 14 days. Calves are born on land or shallow water weighing on average 50 kg (110 lb) and at an average length of around 127 cm (50 in). The female lies on her side when nursing, which can occur underwater or on land. The young are carried on their mothers' backs in deep water. Mother hippos are very protective of their young, not allowing others to get too close. One cow

4429-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

4532-489: The Congo , Uganda , Tanzania , and Kenya , north through to Ethiopia , Somalia , and Sudan , west to The Gambia , and south to South Africa . Genetic evidence suggests common hippos in Africa experienced a marked population expansion during or after the Pleistocene , attributed to an increase in water bodies at the end of the era. These findings have important conservation implications, as hippo populations across

4635-458: The Cyprus dwarf hippo survived until the end of the Pleistocene or early Holocene. Evidence from the archaeological site Aetokremnos continues to cause debate on whether or not the species was driven to extinction or even encountered by humans. The hippopotamus is a megaherbivore and is exceeded in size among land animals only by elephants and some rhinoceros species. The mean adult weight

4738-787: The Elder , in his time, the best location in Egypt for capturing this animal was in the Saite nome ; the animal could still be found along the Damietta branch of the Nile after the Arab Conquest in 639. Reports of the slaughter of the last hippo in Natal Province were made at the end of the 19th century. Hippos are still found in the rivers and lakes of the northern Democratic Republic of

4841-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

4944-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

5047-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

5150-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

5253-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

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5356-780: The Netherlands, and western Germany during interglacial periods, such as the Last Interglacial (130–115,000 years ago). The youngest records of the species in Europe are from the Late Pleistocene of Greece, dating to around 40–30,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence exists of its presence in the Levant , dating to less than 3,000 years ago. The species was common in Egypt 's Nile region during antiquity , but it has since been driven out. According to Pliny

5459-687: The Yoruba. Hippo masks were also used in Nyau funerary rituals of the Chewa of Southern Africa. According to Robert Baden-Powell , Zulu warriors referred to hippos in war chants. The Behemoth from the Book of Job , 40:15–24 is thought to be based on the hippo. Hippos have been the subjects of various African folktales . According to a San story, when the Creator assigned each animal its place in nature,

5562-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

5665-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

5768-414: The animal's skin from cracking if it stays out of water too long. The testes of the males do not fully descend and a scrotum is not present. In addition, the penis retracts into the body when not erect . The genitals of the female hippos are unusual in that the vagina is ridged and the vulval vestibule has two large, protruding diverticula . Both of these have an unknown function. A hippo's lifespan

5871-483: The closest living relatives of the hippopotamids are cetaceans ( whales , dolphins , porpoises , etc.), from which they diverged about 55 million years ago. Hippos are recognisable for their barrel-shaped torsos, wide-opening mouths with large canine tusks, nearly hairless bodies, pillar-like legs, and large size: adults average 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) for bulls (males) and 1,300 kg (2,900 lb) for cows (females). Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it

5974-425: The completely aquatic cetaceans . The other branch became the anthracotheres , a large family of four-legged beasts, the earliest of which in the late Eocene would have resembled skinny hippos with comparatively smaller, narrower heads. All branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae , became extinct during the Pliocene , leaving no descendants. A rough evolutionary lineage of

6077-605: The continent are currently threatened by loss of access to fresh water. Hippos are also subject to unregulated hunting and poaching . The species is included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning international export/import (including in parts and derivatives) requires CITES documentation to be obtained and presented to border authorities. As of 2017,

6180-613: The described morphological differences were small enough that they could have resulted from simple variation in nonrepresentative samples. A study examining mitochondrial DNA from skin biopsies taken from 13 sampling locations found "low, but significant, genetic differentiation" among H. a. amphibius , H. a. capensis , and H. a. kiboko . Neither H. a. tschadensis nor H. a. constrictus have been tested. Until 1909, naturalists classified hippos together with pigs based on molar patterns. Several lines of evidence, first from blood proteins, then from molecular systematics , DNA and

6283-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

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6386-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

6489-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

6592-464: The god Set takes the form of a red hippopotamus and fights Horus for control of the land, but is defeated. The goddess Tawaret is depicted as a pregnant woman with a hippo head, representing fierce maternal love. The Ijaw people of the Niger Delta wore masks of aquatic animals like the hippo when practising their water spirit cults, and hippo ivory was used in the divination rituals of

6695-604: The ground) when they move fast enough. Hippos are reported to reach 30 km/h (19 mph) but this has not been confirmed. They are incapable of jumping but can walk up steep banks. The hippopotamus sleeps with both hemispheres of the brain resting, as in all land mammals, and usually sleeps on land or in water with the nostrils exposed. Despite this, it may be capable of sleeping while submerged, intermittently surfacing to breathe without waking. They appear to transition between different phases of sleep more quickly than other mammals. Because of their size and their habit of taking

6798-643: The hippo can thus be traced from Eocene and Oligocene species: from Anthracotherium and Elomeryx to the Miocene species Merycopotamus and Libycosaurus and finally the very latest anthracotheres in the Pliocene . These groups lived across Eurasia and Africa. The discovery of Epirigenys in East Africa, which was likely a descent of Asian anthracotheres and a sister taxon to Hippopotamidae, suggests that hippo ancestors entered Africa from Asia around 35 million years ago . An early hippopotamid

6901-745: The hippo had to jump into a nearby pool. The hippo lost most of his hair and was too embarrassed to leave the water. Hippopotamuses were rarely depicted in European art during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, due to less access to specimens by Europeans. One notable exception is Peter Paul Rubens ' The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt (1615–1616). Ever since Obaysch inspired the "Hippopotamus Polka", hippos have been popular animals in Western culture for their rotund appearance, which many consider comical. The Disney film Fantasia featured

7004-584: The hippo in The Histories (written circa 440 BC) and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote about the hippo in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia (written circa 77 AD). The Yoruba people called the hippo erinmi , which means "elephant of the water". Some individual hippos have achieved international fame. Huberta became a celebrity during the Great Depression for trekking

7107-404: The hippos wanted to live in the water, but were refused out of fear they might eat all the fish. After begging and pleading, the hippos were finally allowed to live in the water on the condition they would eat grass instead of fish, and fling their dung so it can be inspected for fish bones. In a Ndebele tale, the hippo originally had long, beautiful hair, but it was set on fire by a jealous hare and

7210-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

7313-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

7416-403: The mainland to work, bringing back the mainland's trappings and ideas. Men and women have adopted religious practices introduced by Protestant missionaries, which have also reduced the influences of the island's matrimonial traditions. 11°14.965′N 16°13.27′W  /  11.249417°N 16.22117°W  / 11.249417; -16.22117 This Guinea-Bissau location article

7519-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

7622-562: The modern H. amphibius date to the Middle Pleistocene , though there are possible Early Pleistocene records. Three species of Malagasy hippopotamus became extinct during the Holocene on Madagascar , the last of them within the past 1,000 years. The Malagasy hippos were smaller than the modern hippo, a likely result of the process of insular dwarfism . Fossil evidence indicates many Malagasy hippos were hunted by humans,

7725-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

7828-497: The nictitating membrane. It is the only monogenean species (which normally live on fish) documented to live on a mammal. Cut marks on bones of H. amphibius found at Bolomor Cave , a site in Spain preserving fossils dating from 230,000 to 120,000 years ago, provides evidence for Neanderthal butchery of hippopotamuses. The earliest evidence of modern human interaction with hippos comes from butchery cut marks on hippo bones found at

7931-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

8034-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

8137-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

8240-580: The opportunity arises, and humans may come into conflict with them on these occasions. These encounters can be fatal to either humans or hippos. According to the Ptolemaic historian Manetho , the pharaoh Menes was carried off and then killed by a hippopotamus. Hippos have long been popular zoo animals. The first record of hippos taken into captivity for display is dated to 3500 BC in Hierakonpolis, Egypt. The first zoo hippo in modern history

8343-531: The origins of Hippopotamidae suggests hippos and whales shared a common semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from other artiodactyls around 60 million years ago . This hypothesised ancestral group likely split into two branches again around 54 million years ago . One branch would evolve into cetaceans , possibly beginning about 52 million years ago , with the protowhale Pakicetus and other early whale ancestors collectively known as Archaeoceti . This group eventually underwent aquatic adaptation into

8446-567: The population should be eradicated, as they are breeding rapidly and are an increasing menace to humans and the environment. Attempts to control them include sterilisation and culling . Hippos are semiaquatic and require enough water to immerse in, while being close to grass. They mostly live in freshwater habitat, but can be found in estuaries . They prefer relatively still waters with gently sloping shores, though male hippos may also be found in very small numbers in more rapid waters with rocky slopes. Like most herbivores, hippos will consume

8549-610: The river ' . In English, the plural is "hippopotamuses". The modern hippopotamus and the pygmy hippopotamus are the only living members of the family Hippopotamidae. Some taxonomists place hippos and anthracotheres in the superfamily Anthracotheroidea. Hippopotamidae are classified along with other even-toed ungulates in the order Artiodactyla . Five subspecies of hippos have been described based on morphological differences in their skulls as well as differences in geographical range: The suggested subspecies above were never widely used or validated by field biologists;

8652-419: The roof of their skulls. This allows these organs to remain above the surface while the rest of the body is submerged. The nostrils and ears can close when underwater while nictitating membranes cover the eyes. The vocal folds of the hippo are more horizontally positioned, much like baleen whales. Underneath are throat tissues, where vibrations are transmitted to produce underwater calls. The hippo's jaw

8755-432: The same paths to feed, hippos can have a significant impact on the land across which they walk, keeping the land clear of vegetation and depressing the ground. Over prolonged periods, hippos can divert the paths of swamps and channels. By defecating in the water, the animals also appear to pass on microbes from their gut, affecting the biogeochemical cycle . On occasion, hippos have been filmed eating carrion , usually near

8858-457: The secretions; one red hipposudoric acid and one orange norhipposudoric acid, which inhibit the growth of disease-causing bacteria and their light-absorption profile peaks in the ultraviolet range, creating a sunscreen effect. Regardless of diet, all hippos secrete these pigments so food does not appear to be their source; rather, they may be synthesised from precursors such as the amino acid tyrosine . This natural sunscreen cannot prevent

8961-480: The shoulder, with males and females ranging 1.40 to 1.65 m (4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 5 in) and 1.30 to 1.45 m (4 ft 3 in to 4 ft 9 in) tall at the shoulder respectively. The species has a typical head–body length of 3.3–3.45 m (10.8–11.3 ft) and an average standing height of 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) at the shoulder. Hippos have barrel-shaped bodies with short tails and legs, and an hourglass-shaped skull with

9064-432: The smaller upper canines. The canines and incisors are used mainly for combat instead of feeding. Hippos rely on their flattened, horny lips to grasp and pull grasses which are then ground by the molars . The hippo is considered to be a pseudoruminant ; it has a complex three-chambered stomach, but does not "chew cud ". Hippo skin is 6 cm (2.4 in) thick across much of its body with little hair. The animal

9167-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

9270-467: The unique ability to hold their heads partially above the water and send out a cry that travels through both water and air; individuals respond both above and below water. Cows reach sexual maturity at five to six years of age and have a gestation period of eight months. A study of endocrine systems revealed cows may begin puberty at as early as three or four years. Bulls reach maturity at around 7.5 years. Both conceptions and births are highest during

9373-466: The water and grazing areas. "Yawning" serves as a threat display. When fighting, bulls use their incisors to block each other's attacks and their large canines as offensive weapons. When hippos become over-populated or a habitat shrinks, bulls sometimes attempt infanticide , but this behaviour is not common under normal conditions. The most common hippo vocalisation is the "wheeze honk", which can travel over long distances in air. This call starts as

9476-423: The water dries up. The bull has breeding access to all the cows in his territory. Younger bachelors are allowed to stay as long as they defer to him. A younger male may challenge the old bull for control of the territory. Within the pods, the hippos tend to segregate by sex and status. Bachelor males lounge near other bachelors, females with other females, and the territorial male is on his own. When hippos emerge from

9579-409: The water to graze, they do so individually. Hippos engage in "muck-spreading" which involves defecating while spinning their tails to distribute the faeces over a greater area. Muck-spreading occurs both on land and in water and its function is not well understood. It is unlikely to serve a territorial function, as the animals only establish territories in the water. They may be used as trails between

9682-537: The water, grazing is a solitary activity and hippos typically do not display territorial behaviour on land. Hippos are among the most dangerous animals in the world due to their aggressive and unpredictable nature. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory (canine teeth). The Latin word hippopotamus is derived from the ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος ( hippopótamos ), from ἵππος ( híppos ) ' horse ' and ποταμός ( potamós ) ' river ' , together meaning ' horse of

9785-454: The water. Despite being semiaquatic, an adult hippo is not a particularly good swimmer, nor can it float. It rarely enters deep water; when it does, the animal moves by bouncing off the bottom. An adult hippo surfaces every four to six minutes, while young need to breathe every two to three minutes. Hippos move on land by trotting , and limb movements do not change between speeds. They can reach an airborne stage (a stage when all limb are off

9888-728: The water. There are other reports of meat-eating and even cannibalism and predation . Hippos' stomach anatomy lacks adaptions to carnivory and meat-eating is likely caused by lack of nutrients or just an abnormal behaviour. It is challenging to study the interaction of bulls and cows because hippos are not sexually dimorphic , so cows and young bulls are almost indistinguishable in the field. Hippo pods fluctuate but can contain over 100 hippos. Although they lie close together, adults develop almost no social bonds. Males establish territories in water but not land, and these may range 250–500 m (820–1,640 ft) in lakes and 50–100 m (160–330 ft) in rivers. Territories are abandoned when

9991-528: Was Obaysch , who arrived at the London Zoo on 25 May 1850, where he attracted up to 10,000 visitors a day and inspired a popular song, the "Hippopotamus Polka". Hippos generally breed well in captivity; birth rates are lower than in the wild, but this can be attributed to zoos' desire to limit births, since hippos are relatively expensive to maintain. Starting in 2015, the Cincinnati Zoo built

10094-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

10197-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

10300-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

10403-413: Was recorded protecting a calf's carcass after it had died. Calves may be temporarily kept in nurseries , guarded by one or more adults, and will play amongst themselves. Like many other large mammals, hippos are described as K-strategists , in this case typically producing just one large, well-developed infant every couple of years (rather than many small, poorly developed young several times per year, as

10506-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

10609-621: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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