Tapiridae

Tapirs are large herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk (proboscis). Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America and Southeast Asia. They are one of three extant branches of Perissodactyla, alongside equines and rhinoceroses. Only a single genus, Tapirus, is extant. Tapirs migrated into South America from North America during the Pleistocene epoch after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange. Tapirs were present across North America, but became extinct in the region at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago.

Tapiridae

蕭漫 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
tapirPBDB
Sits inside
TapiroideaPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 524 occurrencesEocene — about 99 of 524 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 51 of 524 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 99 of 524 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 44 of 524 occurrencesPleistocene — about 222 of 524 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 5 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 14 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 14 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 14 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 13 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 15 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 15 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 17 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 10 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 5 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 7 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 10 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 9 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 9 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 10 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 9 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 11 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 14 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 12 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 11 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 19 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 56 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 201 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

524 occurrences of Tapiridae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

524 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

118 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.62°N, 102.67°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 102.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.40°N, 102.40°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WPeace River — 27.50°N, 82.50°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WDell Beds — 45.00°N, 112.80°WUinta — 40.15°N, 109.62°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WUinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WBermont — 28.80°N, 82.20°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WErgilin Dzo — 44.00°N, 111.00°EErgilin Dzo — 43.40°N, 109.10°EErgilin Dzo — 43.75°N, 111.92°ECypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WWiggins — 43.70°N, 108.70°WChambers Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 121.30°WJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WTemblor — 35.27°N, 119.31°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WHetaoyuan — 33.25°N, 111.45°EHetaoyuan — 33.00°N, 111.42°ESopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WDuchesne River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WColmena Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.40°N, 82.60°W

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The named rock units Tapiridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 94 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 283 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tapiridae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Tapiridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,850 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 473 sites for Tapiridae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

274 references

Each of the 524 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 262 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Tapiridae

Credit
蕭漫
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tapiridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTapiroidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1821)