Tapirus merriami

Tapirus merriami, commonly called Merriam's tapir, is an extinct species of tapir which inhabited North America during the Pleistocene.

Tapirus merriami

University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of Geology · Public Domain · 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
Sits inside
TapirusPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Tapirus
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Tapirus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 1 of 7 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.4 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Tapirus merriami on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

7 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

4 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°W

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The named rock units Tapirus merriami has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tapirus merriami and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Tapirus merriami and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

69 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Tapirus merriami, and this reads all 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

5 references

Each of the 7 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. 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 Tapirus merriami

Credit
University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of Geology
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tapirus merriami 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 itTapirus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Frick 1921