By Stephen Beech

Hippos lived in Europe alongside mammoths and woolly rhinos during the last Ice Age, according to new research.

Detailed analysis of bone finds shows that the heat-loving semi-aquatic mammals inhabited part of present-day Germany around 47,000 to 31,000 years ago – 80,000 years more recently than previously thought.

Until now, it was believed that hippos – only found today in sub-Saharan Africa – became extinct in central Europe about 115,000 years ago.

But the new study, published in the journal Current Biology , shows they survived in central Europe far longer than previously assumed.

An international research team proved hippos were still living in the Upper Rhine Graben in south-west Germany during the middle of the last Ice Age.

The researchers explained th

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