GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF TAPIRS

Tapirs belong to the three-toed perissodactyl group of ungulate land mammals. Other members of this group are rhinoceroses, horses, brontotheres, and chalicotheres. Tapirs resemble pigs, but tapirs have a prehensile (flexible) nose.

Tapirs are tropical browsing mammals. There are four living species (Tapirus terrestris, T. bairdii, T. pinchaque, and T. indicus), and they live in forests and woodland near water. Tapirs survive today in Central America (Honduras and Panama), northern South America (i.e., Brazilian Amazon, Brazilian Pantanal, and Peruvian Amazon), and southeast Asia (i.e., southern Thailand, south Myanmar through the Malayan Peninsula, and Sumatra in Indonesia).

Tapirs first appeared about 55 million years ago during early Eocene time in North America, with seven genera during in the Eocene. Bones/skulls of tapirs have been found in Wyoming, the Dakotas, and southern California. They have been found also in lower Eocene deposits on Ellsmere Island of Canada. There were also tapir-like rhinoceroses during the Eocene in North America. Tapirs have a good fossil record in Eurasia. There were also tapir-like horses during the Eocene in Europe. They persisted in the warmer areas of Europe, Asia, and North America (see next paragraph) until late Pleistocene time.

In North America, there were 3 genera of tapirs during the Oligocene, 4 in the Miocene [there was some overlap of these genera in the Oligocene and Miocene], 1 in the Pliocene, and 1 in the Pleistocene (De Santis and MacFadden, 2007). Early Miocene remains of tapirs have been found in Oregon (John Day fossil beds), South Dakota, Nebraska, and the Texas coastal plain. Remains of a Miocene tapir (Miotapirus sp.) have been found in the basal bone bed at Sharktooth Hill in south-central California. Rare remains of Tapirus merriami have been found in Pleistocene Saugus Formation north of Los Angeles, California. Rare remains of late Pleistocene tapirs have been found also at Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, southern California.

North American species of tapirs migrated via the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) southward to Central America and South America. 

Very rare remains of tapirs have even been found in the late Pleistocene La Brea Tar Pits.

The dispersal route out of North America and the timing of this migration took place have not been documented yet for Asian tapirs, including the modern-day Malaysian tapir. Some paleontologists during the 1940s through 1980s dealt with these thorny questions by saying that the route was likely via a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia during Miocene time (= Beringia 2). Some subsequent researchers have been much more cautious and typically say “it is assumed that they reached eastern Asia during the middle Cenozoic.” Is it important not to confuse this early migration (Beringia 2) out of North America with Beringia 3 = the “Ice Age Beringia land bridge,” which took place during Pleistocene time.