Kolpochoerus
genus of mammals
Kolpochoerus is an extinct genus of the pig family Suidae related to the modern-day genera Hylochoerus, Phacochoerus, and Potamochoerus. It is believed that most of them inhabited African forests, as opposed to the bushpig and red river hog that inhabit open brush and savannas. There are currently eleven recognized species.
Species
In taxonomic order:
Genus †Kolpochoerus
K. deheinzelini — Chad, Ethiopia (Early Pliocene)
K. afarensis - eastern Africa (Pliocene)
K. limnetes- eastern Africa (Plio-Pleistocene)
K. millensis — Central Afar, Ethiopia (Pliocene)
K. cookei - Ethiopia (Late Pliocene)
K. heseloni - eastern Africa (Plio-Pleistocene)
K. olduvaiensis - eastern Africa (Pleistocene)
K. majus - eastern Africa (Pleistocene)
K. phacochoeroides - Morocco (Late Pliocene)
K. paiceae - South Africa (Pleistocene)
K. phillipi - Ethiopia (Pleistocene)
Palaeoecology
Based on dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) of its fossils from Kanapoi and Hadar, K. afarensis had a broad, unspecialised diet that included foods that were hard and brittle as well as underground foods such as roots and tubers. DMTA of Kolpochoerus fossils from the Shungura Formation suggests that the genus had a preference for young, minimally abrasive grasses.
References
Thomas, P. 1884. Recherches stratigraphiques et paléontologiques sur quelques formations d’eau douce de l’Algérie. Mémoires de la Société géologique de France, 3ème série, 3, 1–50. ISSN 0078-8554 Palaeont. afr.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kolpochoerus” as genus of mammals. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of mammals. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6427867. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1884.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kolpochoerus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.