''Tapirus merriami'', commonly called Merriam's tapir, 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 inh ...

which inhabited North America during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological 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 finally confirmed in ...

Early history

Tapirs have a long history on the North American continent. Fossils of ancient tapirs in North America can be dated back to 50 million-year-old

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

rocks on Ellesmere Island,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, which was then a temperate climate. By 13 million years before present, tapirs very much like extant tapirs existed in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

.M. Colbert and R. Schoch 1998. Tapiroidea and other moropomorphs. In: C. Janis, K. Scott, L. Jacobs, (eds) Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Volume I: Terrestrial carnivores, ungulates, and ungulate like mammals. Cambridge University Press. During the Pleistocene epoch, four species of tapir are known to have inhabited North America. Along with ''T. merriami'', '' Tapirus californicus'' also lived in California, '' Tapirus veroensis'' was found in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, and '' Tapirus copei'' was found from Pennsylvania to Florida. First discovered and described in 1921 by American vertebrate

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Childs Frick Childs Frick (March 12, 1883 - May 8, 1965) was an American vertebrate paleontologist. He was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and a major benefactor of its Department of Paleontology, which in 1916 began a long partnership wi ...

, ''T. merriami'' lived at the same time, and perhaps many of the same locations, as ''T. californicus'', but is believed to have preferred more inland habitats of southern California and Arizona. Like ''T. californicus'' and all living tapirs, it is believed to have been a relatively solitary species. Of the four known Pleistocene-era tapirs found on the North American continent, ''T. merriami'' was the largest. ''T. merriami'' was a stout-bodied herbivore with short legs, a large, tapering head, and a short, muscular proboscis adept at stripping leaves from shrubs.Jefferson, George T. Contributions in Science: Late Cenozoic Tapirs (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) of Western North America
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References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7684686 Quaternary mammals of North America Pleistocene odd-toed ungulates Pleistocene extinctions Prehistoric tapirs Fossil taxa described in 1921