Helaletidae

{{Short description|Extinct family of odd-toed ungulates}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|fossil_range = Early Eocene - Miocene

|image = Helaletes nanus (Marsh, 1871).jpg

|image_caption = Skeleton of Helaletes nanus

|taxon = Helaletidae

|authority = Osborn, 1892

|subdivision_ranks = Genera

|subdivision =

• †Colodon
• †Dilophodon
• †Helaletes
• †Heptodon
• †Heteraletes
• †Paracolodon
• †Plesiocolopirus
• †Thuliadanta

}}

The Helaletidae are an extinct family of tapiroid, closely related and likely ancestral to the true tapirs, which contain Protapirus and all descendants.{{cite book |last1=Ruiz-García |first1=M. |title= Current Topics in Phylogenetics and Phylogeography of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems |chapter=Phylogeography of the mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) and the Central American tapir (Tapirus bairdii) and the molecular origins of the three South-American tapirs |date=2012 |pages= 83-116 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230585050}} In alternative classifications, Helaletidae is treated as a subfamily within the Tapiridae, the Helaletinae.

Members of the family are defined by having less bilophodont cheek teeth compared to other tapiroids.{{cite book |last1=Lucas |first1=Spencer G. |title=Chinese Fossil Vertebrates |date=2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231504614 |page=217}}