Hippopotamus amphibius (East African hippopotamus) genome, mHipAmp2, sequence data
The East African hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) or common hippopotamus is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It 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" (from Wikipedia entry). This sample from a female born in captivity at the San Diego Zoo, USA, procured by Oliver Ryder and Cynthia Steiner, and used to generate a high-quality reference genome for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genomes Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Olivier Fedrigo and Erich D. Jarvis.