Tapirus

<i>Tapirus</i>

Tapirus

Genus of tapir


Tapirus is a genus of tapir which contains the living tapir species. The Malayan tapir is usually included in Tapirus as well, although some authorities have moved it into its own genus, Acrocodia.[2]

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Extant species

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The Kabomani tapir was at one point recognized as another living member of the genus, but is now considered to be nested within T. terrestris.[4][5]

Evolution

Tapirus first appeared in the Late Miocene in North America, with Tapirus webbi perhaps the oldest known fossil species.

Tapirus spread into South America and Eurasia during the Pliocene. It has been suggested that the tapirs that inhabited North America during the Late Pleistocene may be derived from a South American species that remigrated north, perhaps Tapirus cristatellus.[6]

Tapirs suffered large-scale extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene, and went completely extinct north of southern Mexico.

Fossil species


References

  1. Grubb, P. (2005). "Order Perissodactyla". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 633. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. Groves, C.P.; Grubb, P. (2011). Ungulate Taxonomy (PDF). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 18–20. ISBN 978-1-4214-0093-8. LCCN 2011008168. OCLC 708357723. OL 25220152M. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-26.
  3. Hulbert, Richard C. (2010). "A new early Pleistocene tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from Florida, with a review of Blancan tapirs from the state" (PDF). Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 49 (3): 67–126. doi:10.58782/flmnh.ezjr9001.
  4. Ruiz-García, Manuel; Castellanos, Armando; Bernal, Luz Agueda; Pinedo-Castro, Myreya; Kaston, Franz; Shostell, Joseph M. (2016-03-01). "Mitogenomics of the mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque, Tapiridae, Perissodactyla, Mammalia) in Colombia and Ecuador: Phylogeography and insights into the origin and systematics of the South American tapirs". Mammalian Biology. 81 (2): 163–175. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2015.11.001. ISSN 1616-5047.
  5. "All About the Terrific Tapir | Tapir Specialist Group". Tapir Specialist Group. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  6. Holanda, E.C.; Ferrero, B.S. (2012). "Reappraisal of the Genus Tapirus (Perissodactyla, Tapiridae): Systematics and Phylogenetic Affinities of the South American Tapirs". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 20: 33–44. doi:10.1007/s10914-012-9196-z. hdl:11336/18792. S2CID 254697945.
  7. Holanda, E.C.; Rincón, A.D. (2012). "Tapirs from the Pleistocene of Venezuela". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 57 (3): 463–473. doi:10.4202/app.2011.0001. S2CID 54846719.

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