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Tapirs

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A tapir

Tapirs are large, herbivorous ungulates, belonging to the genus Tapirus of the family Tapiridae in the superfamily Tapiroidea. In the genus Tapirus there are four living species: the South American tapir, the Malayan tapir, Baird's tapir, and the mountain tapir. (In English, the plural form of the word “tapir” is “tapirs” or “tapir”.)

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  • Of the extant lineages of perissodactyls, tapirs have the poorest and least understood fossil record. Both molecular and morphological data agree that the tapirs and rhinoceroses are more closely related to each other than to horses ..., and the superfamilies Tapiroidea and Rhinocerotoidea are combined as Ceratomorpha. ...
    While the fossil record of horses and rhinoceroses is notable for its diversity and illustration of evolutionary trends, tapirs and their fossil relatives are more notable for their conservatism. Both living and fossil tapirs typically inhabit or have inhabited warm, closed canopy forests, not unlike the earliest perissodactyls. However, tapir evolution shows many of the same trends as that of horses and rhinos, including increases in body size and premolars that increasingly resemble molars (i.e. premolar molarisation).
  • The short-legged, barrel-bodied tapirs live exclusively in the dense jungles of Central and South America and southeast Asia, where they browse on leaves with their flexible proboscis. Tapirs are solitary, ranging over a wide area of jungle, swimming rivers with ease, and even climbing mountainsides. They swim to feed, cool themselves off, and rid themselves of skin parasites, as well as seek refuge in water, where they can stay submerged for several minutes. They follow well-established routes in the jungle and even make tunnel-like trails through the vegetaton, which they mark with urine during their daily routine. They browse leaves or green shoots, as welll as soft twigs, fruites, grasses and aquatic vegetation. They follow a zigzag course while feeding, moving continously and taking only a few leaves from each plant.
  • The head is not unlike that of a horse, but the upper lip much longer, projecting something like the proboscis of an elephant, and is also moveable, but too short to be of much use, as is the trunk of that animal; the ears are short, the tusks strong, and sometimes visible, the mane is bristly and erect, the limbs are low and strong, with a hoof divided into four claws, and the tail is thick and short like that of the elephant. The skin of this creature is excessively thick, of a brown colour, and when young it is marked with white spots, like those of the stag or paca, proceeding in longitudinal rows. It feeds on grass, and other herbs that grow in watery places, and is so shy, that when alarmed by the smallest noise it plunges under waster, also like the paca, for security, where it remains for a considerable time. The flesh of the tapira is delicate, being accounted superior to the best ox-beef.
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