''Tapirus lundeliusi'' is an extinct species of

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabit ...

that lived in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in the early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. It was similar in size and shape to the still-living

mountain tapir The mountain tapir, also known as the Andean tapir or woolly tapir (''Tapirus pinchaque'') is the smallest of the four widely recognized species of tapir. It is the only one to live outside of tropical rainforests in the wild. It is most easily d ...

(''T. pinchaque''), with an estimated weight of 203 kg

Taxonomy

There are multiple pieces of evidence which indicate most, if not all, of the 5 accepted Pleistocene tapir species found in the modern-day United States ('' T. californicus'', '' T. haysii'' (''T. copei''), ''T. lundeliusi'', '' T. merriami'', '' T. veroensis'') may actually belong to the same species. ''T. californicus'' was considered to be a subspecies of ''T. haysii'' by Merriam, ''T. californicus'' and ''T. veroensis'' are nearly impossible to distinguish morphologically and occupy the same time frame, being separated only by location, and ''T. haysii'', ''T. veroensis'', and ''T. lundeliusi'' are already considered so closely related that they occupy the same subgenus (''Helicotapirus''). Additionally, few details distinguish ''T. haysii'' and ''T. veroensis'' except size, date, and wear of teeth; and the intermediate sizes overlap greatly with many specimens originally assigned to one species, then later switched over to another.

References

Prehistoric tapirs Prehistoric mammals of North America {{paleo-oddtoedungulate-stub