Choeropsis Leidy, 1853

Flacke, Gabriella L & Decher, Jan, 2019, Choeropsis liberiensis (Artiodactyla: Hippopotamidae), Mammalian Species 51 (982), pp. 100-118 : 100

Choeropsis Leidy, 1853

Diprotodon Duvernoy, 1849:277 . Type species Hippopotamus liberiensis Morton, 1849 by original designation; described as a subgenus of Hippopotamus; preoccupied by Diprotodon Owen, 1838 (fossil marsupial).

Choerodes Leidy, 1852:52 . Type species Hippopotamus liberiensis Morton, 1849 by original designation; preoccupied by Choerodes (= Chaerodes ) White, 1846 (tenebrionid beetle); see “Nomenclatural Notes.”

Choeropsis Leidy, 1853:213 . Type species Hippopotamus minor Morton, 1844 by original designation.

Ditomeodon Gratiolet, 1867:202 . Type species Hippopotamus liberiensis Morton, 1849 by original designation.

CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Artiodactyla , suborder Whippomorpha , infraorder Ancodonta , family Hippopotamidae , genus Choeropsis . Family Hippopotamidae also includes the monotypic genus Hippopotamus, which contains the much larger common hippopotamus ( H. amphibius ). Following the subspecific key of Corbet (1969), Groves and Grubb (2011) elevated the extant Upper Guinean and the Liberian pygmy hippo Choeropsis to two full species C. liberiensis and C. heslopi . C. heslopi was previously found east of the Dahomey Gap (Togo- Benin) in the Niger Delta of southeastern Nigeria ( Ritchie 1930; Heslop 1945; Corbet 1969) and is now considered extinct because it has not been reported for> 70 years ( Ransom et al. 2015). Lewison (2011) also considers heslopi to be functionally extinct but considered it to be a subspecies of liberiensis .