Tapirus | |
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South American tapir, a type species of Tapirus | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Perissodactyla |
Family: | Tapiridae |
Genus: | Tapirus Brisson, 1762 [1] |
Type species | |
Hippopotamus terrestris (=today is Tapirus terrestris) | |
Species | |
For extinct species, see text | |
Synonyms [1] | |
About 12
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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]
Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
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![]() | Baird's tapir (also called the Central American tapir) | Tapirus bairdii(Gill, 1865) | Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America. |
![]() | South American tapir (also called the Brazilian tapir or lowland tapir) | Tapirus terrestris(Linnaeus, 1758) | Venezuela, Colombia, and the Guianas in the north to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay in the south, to Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador in the West |
![]() | Mountain tapir (also called the woolly tapir) | Tapirus pinchaque(Roulin, 1829) | Eastern and Central Cordilleras mountains in Colombia, Ecuador, and the far north of Peru. |
![]() | Malayan tapir (also called the Asian tapir, Oriental tapir or Indian tapir) | Tapirus indicus(Desmarest, 1819) | Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand |
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]
The genus Tapirus first appeared during the Middle Miocene (around 16-10 million years ago), known fossils in both Europe (T. telleri) and North America (T. johnsoni and T. polkensis). [6] The youngest tapir in Europe, Tapirus arvernensis became extinct at the end of the Pliocene, around 2.6 million years ago. [7] Tapirus dispersed into South America during the Early Pleistocene as part of the Great American Interchange, around 2.6-1 million years ago. [8]
Tapirs suffered considerable extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene, and went completely extinct north of southern Mexico.
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)