Tapiroidea
Superfamily of mammals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tapiroidea is a superfamily of perissodactyls which includes the living tapirs and their extinct relatives. Tapiroids represent one of the oldest living lineages of large mammals.[1] Their closest living relatives are rhinoceroses; the ancestral lineages of tapirs and rhinoceroses split from each other approximately 51–47 million years ago.[1] Once a large group encompassing several families,[2] tapiroids are today represented only by the four living species of the genus Tapirus. All living species are listed as endangered or vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.[1]
| Tapiroids Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Clade: | Tapiromorpha |
| Suborder: | Ceratomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Tapiroidea Gill, 1872 |
| Families | |
|
Incertae sedis genera
| |
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Fossil record
The fossil record of tapiroids stretches back to the Early Eocene.[2][3] Out of the three extant perissodactyl lineages, tapirs have the poorest and least well understood fossil record.[2] Most tapiroids appear to have been relatively conservative, unlike the diversity seen in equoids and rhinocerotoids.[2] Both ancient and modern tapirs appear to have inhabited closed-canopy warm forests.[2]
Tapiroids were numerous and widespread in the Eocene in both North America and Asia, and is represented by several taxa in the Oligocene of both North America and Europe.[1] Tapiroid diversity sharply declined after the Oligocene.[1] Tapiridae first appeared during the early Oligocene in Europe, and may have originated from the tapiroid family Helaletidae.[3][4]
