noun
definition
Any one of the species of large odd-toed ungulates of the taxonomic family Tapiridae with a long prehensile upper lip, of which all four surviving species are in genus Tapirus.
Examples of tapirs in a Sentence
In Anoplotherium, some of the species of which were larger than tapirs, there were either two or three toes, the latter number being almost unique among the Artiodactyla.
There are a further 120 Malayan tapirs in other zoos around the world.
Although palaeotheres resemble tapirs in general appearance, they differ in having only three toes on the fore as well as on the hind foot.
In the tapirs and many extinct forms the fifth toe also remains on the fore-limb, but its presence does not interfere with the symmetrical arrangement of the remainder of the foot on each side of the median line of the third or middle digit.
The Perissodactyla may be divided into the four following sections, namely the extinct Titanotheroidea, the Hippoidea, represented by the horse tribe and their ancestors, the Tapiroidea, typified by the tapirs, and the Rhinocerotoidea, which includes the modern rhinoceroses and their forerunners.
In North America the earliest representative of the group is Systemodon of the Lower Eocene, in which all the upper premolars are quite simple; while the molars are of a type which would readily develop into that of the modern tapirs, both outer columns being conical and of equal size.
Tapirs are an ancient group with many of the original characters of the primitive Ungulates of the Oligocene period, and have undergone but little change since the Miocene.
Tapirs are massively built, with short stout limbs, elongated head, and the nose and upper lip produced to form a short flexible trunk.
The singular fact of the existence of animals so closely allied as the Malayan and the American tapirs in such distant regions of the earth and in no intervening places is accounted for by the geological history of the race, for the tapirs once had a very wide distribution.
Thus there is no difficulty in tracing the common origin in the Miocene tapirs of Europe of the now widely separated American and Asiatic species.
Tapirs are to be found in the eastern forests, the peccary in more open woodlands, and the opossum in nearly every part of the country.
The now waning group of Perissodactyla would appear to have originally been a northern one, as all the three existing families, rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae), tapirs (Tapiridae), and horses (Equidae), are well represented in the Tertiaries of both halves of the northern hemisphere.
In addition to the occurrence of their fossil remains almost throughout the world, the former wide range of the tapirs is attested by the fact of their living representatives being confined to such widely sundered areas as Malaysia and tropical America.
The jaguar's major prey includes tapirs, deer, monkeys, and capybara, but it will eat almost any vertebrate.
Brazilian tapirs are hoofed mammals, with three toes on each hind foot and four on each front foot.
This latter animal is closely related to one which Cuvier termed Pangolin gigantesque, and had he restored it according to his " law of correlation " he would have pictured a giant " scaly anteater," a type as wide as the poles from the actual form of Chalicotherium, which in body, limbs and teeth is a modified ungulate herbivore, related remotely to the tapirs.
The jaguar 's major prey includes tapirs, deer, monkeys, and capybara, but it will eat almost any vertebrate.
In habits all tapirs appear to be very similar.