[1][2] They lived between the lower/middle Eocene and lower Oligocene (about 48 - 30 million years ago) and their remains were found in Europe and Africa.

Choeropotamidae had the classic archaic appearance of primitive artiodactyls, with an unspecialized body and relatively small size.

However, since the middle Eocene, choeropotamids began to develop some characteristics that will be found, more accentuated, in the suiforms: bunodonti molars (low and wide crown) and short legs.

Choeropotamidae are mainly known in numerous European Eocene deposits, and only a few fossils of dubious identity have been found in Egypt and Turkey.

Choeropotamids are clearly derived from primitive forms of artiodactyls such as Diacodexis, and yet they already show some specializations that recall the suiforms, although they are not their direct ancestors.