Tapir
Evolution and natural history

Tapirs originated from the " tapiroids ", a group of primitive perissodactyls that inhabited North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch, with tapirs probably originating from the family Helaletidae. The oldest known members of the family Tapiridae such as Protapirus are known from the Early Oligocene of Europe. The oldest representatives of the modern genus Tapirus appeared in Europe during the Mid- Miocene, with Tapirus dispersing into Asia and North America by the late Miocene. Tapirus became extinct in Europe around the end of the Pliocene. Tapirs dispersed into South America during Pleistocene as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange with their oldest records on the continent dating to around 2.6-1 million years ago.

Approximate divergence times based on a 2013 analysis of mtDNA sequences are 0.5 Ma for T. kabomani and the T. terrestris – T. pinchaque clade, 5 Ma for T. bairdii and the three South American tapirs, and 9 Ma for the branching of T. indicus. T. pinchaque arises from within a paraphyletic complex of T. terrestris populations.
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