Tuesday, 14 October 2025

Creationism Refuted - Hippos Lived In The Rhine - More Than 21,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Left mandible fragment of a female hippopotamus from Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim.
Between 46,000 and 48,300 years old.
Photo: Rebecca Kind

Hippos lived at the Upper Rhine in the same time frame as mammoths. In the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen a hippo reconstruction meets a mammoth skeleton.

Photo: Rebecca Kind
Hippos lived in Europe during the last ice age | University of Potsdam!

News that an international research team led by University of Potsdam and Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim, working with Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie, has produced evidence that hippos lived along the Rhine in what is now Germany some 21,000 years before creationists believe Earth was created out of nothing, will probably come as no surprise to creationists.

They are well-practised at living in a world where verifiable evidence repeatedly refutes their beliefs. Over time, they have developed all manner of convoluted mental gymnastics to cope with the resultant cognitive dissonance—secure in the arrogant conviction that their beliefs trump evidence simply because they label them “faith”.

Normal people, of course, tend to have the humility to accept that evidence is the only valid basis for an informed opinion, and that it must therefore take precedence over myths and fairy tales told to them by parents and authority figures with vested cultural interests. The real test of whether a belief is right or wrong is how well it is supported by evidence—not how cleverly the evidence can be ignored.

This discovery extends our knowledge of the extinction timeline of European hippos, previously believed to have disappeared around 115,000 years ago. The new evidence pushes that date forward dramatically, showing that they survived until about 31,000 years ago, at least in that part of Europe. It also clarifies how these European populations were related to the African hippos.

That timeline is not only inconvenient for creationists; it also highlights the parochial nature of the Bible’s authors, who clearly had no knowledge of flora and fauna beyond their narrow Middle Eastern world. Notably, the Bible makes no mention of the African megafauna—hippos, elephants, giraffes, or ostriches, for example. In fact, the latter would have posed a serious problem for their primitive taxonomy, which classified bats as “birds” simply because they could fly. One can only wonder where they might have placed the flightless ostrich.

The Upper Rhine Graben – A Rift Valley in Central Europe.
Map of the Upper Rhine Graben. A. Location of the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) in Europe.
Source: ResearchGate
The Upper Rhine Graben is a major geological rift valley running roughly north–south between Basel in Switzerland and Frankfurt in Germany, extending for about 300 kilometres. It was formed around 35 million years ago during the Eocene–Oligocene period when the Earth’s crust stretched and subsided between two fault zones.
  • Geology: A broad, low-lying basin bordered by the Vosges Mountains to the west and the Black Forest to the east.
  • Hydrology: The river Rhine flows along its axis, creating fertile floodplains and a relatively mild microclimate compared with the surrounding highlands.
  • Palaeontology: During warmer interglacial periods, this landscape provided favourable habitats for animals such as hippopotamuses, which could survive there long after they disappeared from other regions of Europe.
  • Modern significance: The area remains tectonically active, with geothermal energy resources, productive agricultural land, and ecological importance as a biodiversity corridor.
The analysis of the age and DNA of these hippopotamus remains, found in the Upper Rhine Graben, is reported in the open-access journal Current Biology and in news release by the University of Potsdam.
Hippos lived in Europe during the last ice age
Hippos, today restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, survived in central Europe far longer than previously assumed. Analyses of bone finds demonstrate that hippos inhabited the Upper Rhine Graben sometime between approximately 47,000 and 31,000 years ago, well into the last ice age. An international research team lead by the University of Potsdam and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim with the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie now published a study on this in the journal Current Biology.
Until now, it was believed that common hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) became extinct in central Europe around 115,000 years ago, with the end of the last interglacial period. A new study, conducted by researchers from the University of Potsdam, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim, the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie Mannheim, ETH Zurich and international partners, demonstrates that hippos inhabited the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany sometime between approximately 47,000 and 31,000 years ago, i.e. during the middle of the last ice age.

The Upper Rhine Graben is an important continental climate archive. Animal bones that have survived for thousands of years in gravel and sand deposits are a valuable source for research. “It's amazing how well the bones have been preserved. At many skeletal remains it was possible to take samples suitable for analysis – that is not a given after such a long time,” emphasizes Dr. Ronny Friedrich, expert in age determination at the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie.

The team examined numerous hippopotamus finds and combined paleogenomic and radiocarbon analyses. Ancient DNA sequencing showed that European ice age hippos are closely related to African hippos living today and belong to the same species. Radiocarbon dating confirmed their presence during a milder climatic phase in the middle Weichselian glaciation.

Additional genome-wide analysis indicated very low genetic diversity, suggesting that the population in the Upper Rhine Graben was small and isolated. These results and further fossil evidence show that heat-loving hippos appeared in the same time frame as species adapted to cold temperatures, such as mammoths and woolly rhinos.

The results demonstrate that hippos did not vanish from middle Europe at the end of the last interglacial, as previously assumed, therefore, we should re-analyze other continental European hippo fossils traditionally attributed to the last interglacial period.

Dr. Patrick Arnold, lead author
Evolutionary Adaptive Genomics
Institute of Biochemistry and Biology
University Potsdam
Potsdam, Germany.

Prof. Dr. Wilfried Rosendahl, general director of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim and project leader of “Eiszeitfenster Oberrheingraben” is convinced that ice age research still holds many exciting questions:

The current study provides important new insights which impressively prove that ice age was not the same everywhere, but local peculiarities taken together form a complex overall picture – similar to a puzzle. It would now be interesting and important to further examine other heat-loving animal species, attributed so far to the last interglacial.

Prof. Dr. Wilfried Rosendahl, co-author.
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen
Zeughaus, Mannheim, Germany.
And Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH, Mannheim, Germany.

The study was conducted within the framework of the project “Eiszeitfenster Oberrheingraben”, funded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung Heidelberg. The interdisciplinary project contributes to understanding climate and environmental developments in the Upper Rhine Graben and southwestern Germany over the last 400,000 years. Objects of investigation are ice age bone finds from the Reis collection, located at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen.

Publication:
Highlights
  • First paleogenome and partial mitogenomes from Late Pleistocene hippos from Europe
  • Close genetic link between Late Pleistocene European and modern African hippos
  • Radiocarbon dating reveals their mid-Weichselian presence in the Upper Rhine Graben
  • Low genome-wide diversity suggests a small, isolated population

Summary Late Pleistocene hippo fossils (Hippopotamus amphibius) from Europe have generally been associated with the last interglacial period (Eemian, 129–115 thousand years ago [kya]).1,2,3,4 As a widely accepted indicator species for temperate climate conditions, it was assumed they went extinct with the onset of the last glacial (Weichselian) around 115 kya.2,5 Their origin and relationships to extant African common hippos and the exact age of their extinction in central Europe, however, remain unclear. Here, we address these questions using an integrated approach applied to hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben in central Europe. By sequencing the paleogenome of a European hippo, we reveal its close genetic links to modern hippos from Africa. Six additional partial mitochondrial genomes confirm that European representatives were part of the same, once widespread species that is today restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. Surprisingly, radiocarbon dating shows that hippos were present in central Europe during the middle Weichselian (a period spanning from earlier than 47 kya until ∼31 kya), i.e., well into the last glacial. Similar radiocarbon dates for woolly mammoth and woolly rhino fossils from the same sites imply the presence of both faunas during this period. Despite the paleogenome’s low coverage, we are able to confidently estimate its genome-wide diversity by recalibrating the sequencing quality scores and assessing post-mortem damage. The low genome-wide diversity recovered suggests that it belonged to a small, isolated population. Overall, our combined data imply that hippos inhabited the Upper Rhine Graben refugium during temperate phases of the middle Weichselian.

Results and discussion
The Middle and Late Pleistocene of Europe was dominated by alternating glacial and interglacial periods.6 A particularly exotic element of the European interglacial fauna was the hippopotamus.2 Hippos colonized Europe from Africa in multiple waves, probably by multiple species of the genus Hippopotamus, including the common hippo (H. amphibius) that is today restricted to sub-Saharan Africa.7,8,9,10 During their maximum geographic distribution in Europe, hippos ranged from the British Isles in the northwest to the Iberian and Italian peninsulas in the south.8 Their presence in the fossil record generally implies temperate conditions with denser vegetation and open water bodies. Hence, it is a widely accepted indicator species for interglacial periods.1,2,3,4 Accordingly, it is generally assumed that both its peak prevalence and maximum geographic distribution in Late Pleistocene Europe coincide with the Eemian interglacial between 129 and 115 thousand years ago (kya) (corresponding to marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 5e2,3,4,8). The onset of cooling at the beginning of the subsequent last glaciation (Weichselian glaciation; 115–11.7 kya; corresponding to MIS 5d-2) consequently led to unfavorable conditions resulting in its extinction in western and central Europe.2,5 Their origin and relationships to extant African common hippos (ACHs) and the exact age of their extinction in central Europe, however, still remain unclear, as, beyond morphological identification, only a few detailed analyses have been performed on Late Pleistocene hippos, and ancient DNA data are notably absent for this species.

Close genetic links between Late Pleistocene European and extant African hippos
We subjected 19 hippo specimens from fossil localities in the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany to paleogenetic analysis (Figure 1A; Table S1). The Upper Rhine Graben represents the easternmost boundary of Hippopotamus’ Late Pleistocene distribution in central Europe.3,8 The long history of quarrying activities in the sandy-gravelly deposits (Mannheim formation11; see STAR Methods for further details) unearthed numerous fossils of large mammal remains from the Late Pleistocene. As these deposits include representatives from both interglacial and glacial fauna, they have traditionally been interpreted as preserving the transition between the Eemian interglacial and the early Weichselian glacial (MIS4) in central Europe1,2,3,4,12,13,14 and thus as evidence supporting the hypothesis that hippos went extinct at the end of the Eemian interglacial. Out of 19 analyzed samples, one (NK37 from the gravel pit Eich; Table S1) yielded a higher proportion of endogenous DNA and was sequenced to ∼0.5× genomic coverage to elucidate phylogenetic relationships between Pleistocene European and extant ACHs. Post-mortem damage patterns support the authenticity of ancient mapped reads (Figure S1). A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic reconstruction, based on 3,085 concatenated 5 kb genomic windows sufficiently covered by paleogenetic data, places the Upper Rhine Graben hippo sample NK37 closer to the two extant ACHs (ACH1 and ACH2) than to the extant West African pygmy hippo (WPH) (Choeropsis liberiensis), which was inferred as a distantly related outgroup (Figure 1B). However, the exact placement of NK37 in regard to the ACH specimens is unclear. The concatenated dataset as well as 44% of window trees place NK37 as sister lineage to both ACH1 and ACH2, but 38% and 18% of window trees support a closer relationship of NK37 to ACH1 or ACH2, respectively (i.e., sample NK37 inside ACHs; Figure 1B). This is further supported by D-statistics (Z = −5.77) that imply a closer relationship of sample NK37 to ACH1 than to ACH2. The discordance could stem from incomplete lineage sorting combined with phylogeographic structure in the ancestral African population. Alternatively, it could be the result of admixture between different hippo lineages in Africa or Europe. Figure 1 Geographic origin and phylogenetic relationships of fossil hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben
Figure 1 Geographic origin and phylogenetic relationships of fossil hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben

(A) Location of gravel pits in the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) in southwestern Germany where the analyzed fossils of hippos, mammoths, and woolly rhinos have been unearthed (red dots): 1, Gimbsheim/Eich; 2, Groß-Rohrheim; 3, Bobenheim-Roxheim. Black pentagons indicate major cities: B, Basel; F, Frankfurt; M, Mainz; S, Strasbourg. Scale: 100 km in total.

(B) Nuclear phylogeny based on 3,085 genomic windows (with uniform branch lengths), including a single ancient sample (NK37) from the URG. Maximum-likelihood tree from concatenated dataset in black (100% bootstrap support), densitree visualization of incongruence among window trees in blue (with uniform branch lengths).

(C) Calibrated Bayesian phylogeny of mitochondrial genomes from Late Pleistocene URG hippos, extant African common hippos (ACH), and extant West African pygmy hippos (WPH) using a Bayesian skyline coalescent tree prior. Node support (posterior probability) is >0.99 for all nodes except those indicated differently or marked with an asterisk (<0.75).

See also Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1.

Using enrichment by hybridization capture and stringent sequence calling methods, we additionally recovered partial mitogenomes for six Upper Rhine Graben specimens (completeness ranging from 15% to 78%; Table S1). Authenticity of ancient reads is again supported by post-mortem damage patterns (Figure S1). Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that Late Pleistocene hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben are closely related and form a monophyletic lineage that falls within the mitochondrial diversity of extant ACHs (Figure 1C and S2). An approximately unbiased test, however, cannot exclude (p = 0.131) a position outside extant ACHs (similar to the main topology in the nuclear concatenation analysis above). Thus, the exact branching order at the beginning of the H. amphibius divergence cannot unambiguously be resolved. The close genetic link of Pleistocene hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben to extant ACHs is also supported by haplotype networks based on a larger, continent-wide sample of mitochondrial cytochrome B (854 nt) and control region sequences15 (927 nt; Figure S2). In all networks, Pleistocene hippos from the Upper Rhine Graben share haplotypes with specimens mostly known from eastern and southeastern Africa. Mitochondrial distance among contemporary ACHs from different regions in Africa is likewise larger than between Pleistocene hippos and some extant east African hippo lineages. These results show that these Late Pleistocene hippos from Europe do not form a divergent lineage but were part of the once widely distributed common hippo that is now confined to sub-Saharan Africa.

The picture that emerges is of a species whose history mirrors, in many respects, that of our own: waves of migration out of Africa, followed by the establishment of diverse regional populations adapted to different environments. This pattern of dispersal and local evolution is a hallmark of natural processes operating over extended timescales—precisely the kind of evidence that is incompatible with a recent, sudden creation.

The survival of a hippopotamus population in the relatively mild climate of the Upper Rhine Graben during the last Ice Age is particularly striking. It shows how climate and geography can create refugia where species endure long after they have disappeared elsewhere. This aligns neatly with what evolutionary biology predicts and stands in stark contrast to creationist narratives, which offer no coherent explanation for such distributions in time and space.

Once again, the evidence supports a deep, dynamic history of life on Earth—an ancient and interconnected world shaped by environmental change, migration, adaptation and extinction, not by mythological events a few thousand years ago. The hippos of Ice Age Germany are another clear reminder that the natural world tells a story far richer and older than anything found in creationist texts.



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