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Tapirus californicus, the California tapir, is an extinct species of tapir that inhabited North America during the Pleistocene. It became extinct about 13,000 years ago. [1] Like other perissodactyls, tapirs originated in North America and lived on the North American continent for most of the Cenozoic Era.
Tapirs migrated into South America during the Pleistocene epoch from North America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange. [10] Tapirs were formerly present across North America, but became extinct in the region at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago.
The Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii), also known as the Central American tapir, is a species of tapir native to Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. [4] It is the largest of the three species of tapir native to the Americas, as well as the largest native land mammal in both Central and South America.
Tapirs have a long history on the North American continent. Fossils of ancient tapirs in North America can be dated back to 50 million-year-old Eocene rocks on Ellesmere Island, Canada, which was then a temperate climate. [1] By 13 million years before present, tapirs very much like extant tapirs existed in Southern California. [2]
They are primarily found in Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, and Central America, and are found in a variety of biomes, most typically grassland, savanna, inland wetlands, shrubland, and desert. Perissodactyls range in size from the 1.8 m (6 ft) long Baird's tapir to the 4 m (13 ft) long white rhinoceros.
Horses and tapirs arrived in South America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama around 3 million years ago in the Pliocene. Their North American counterparts died out around 10,000 years ago, leaving only Baird's tapir with a range extending to what is now southern Mexico.
The taxonomy of Pleistocene North American tapirs has long been the subject of confusion, with many named species now recognised as synonyms of T. veroensis. Tapirus veroensis is the type species of the subgenus Helicotapirus, which includes several other species of extinct tapir from North America like T. lundeliusi and T. haysii.
Tapirus haysii is an extinct species of tapir that inhabited North America during the early to middle Pleistocene Epoch (~2.5–1 Ma). [1] These fossil remains of two juvenile T. haysii were collected in Hillsborough County, Florida on August 31, 1963. [2] It was classified as the second largest North American tapir; the first being T. merriami ...