Tapirs

The tapir is a large brown, or black and white, hoofed animal with many similarities to the rhinoceros. The skin is hairy and very thick, and the tail is short. Of the four living species, Tapirus indicus, the largest, is Malayan. The rest occur in Central and South America. These are black when adult although the young are striped yellow and white.

It belongs to the order Perissodactyla and is probably the most unspecialized type of that order. Tapirs form the family, Tapiridae, which belongs with the Rhinocerotidae (rhinos) in the suborder Tapiromorpha.

In spite of the general similarity, tapirs and rhinos have been distinct since the Lower Oligocene, when clear fossils of both families - often considered indistinguishable from living genera - are found. The chief external differences with rhinos are the absence of horns, the elongation of the snout into a short proboscis, the long neck, the absence of skin folds, and the presence of at least a sparse covering of hair.

Tapirs appeared first in Europe, later spreading to North America. Living tapirs have an oddly discontinuous distribution in Southeast Asia and in Central and South America.