Five almost complete cervical vertebrae and fragments of the sixth, associated with a partial cranium and limb bones of the bothriodontine Brachyodus aequatorialis from Early Miocene fluvial deposits at Grillental VI, Northern Sperrgebiet, Namibia, reveal not only that this anthracothere possessed a relatively elongated neck in contrast to hippopotami which have considerably shorter necks, but also that the morphology of the neck vertebrae in these two families is radically divergent, those of Brachyodus are closer morphologically to those of tragulids, while hippopotamid vertebrae are most similar to those of Palaeochoeridae. This discovery adds to the long suite of characters by which the skeleton of anthracotheres differs from that of hippopotamids, making it unlikely that the former gave rise to the latter, thereby running counter to repeated claims in recent literature to the effect that hippopotamids descended from anthracotheres. Keywords: Brachyodus, cervical vertebrae, neck, head posture, Anthracotheriidae, Hippopotamidae, Neogene, Namibia.