Tapirus merriami
{{Short description|Extinct species of tapir}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Tapirus merriami.jpg
| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|2.8|0.012}}Middle-Late Pleistocene
| extinct = yes
| genus = Tapirus
| species = merriami
| authority = Frick, 1921
}}
Tapirus merriami, commonly called Merriam's tapir, is an extinct species of tapir which inhabited North America during the Pleistocene.
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 rocks on Ellesmere Island, Canada, which was then a temperate climate.Eberle, J. 2005. A new "tapir" from Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada - Implications for northern high latitude palaeobiogeography and tapir palaeobiology. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 277(4): 311–322. By 13 million years before present, tapirs very much like extant tapirs existed in Southern California.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.{{Cite book|author=Björn Kurtén, Elaine Anderson|title=Pleistocene mammals of North America|pages=293–294|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1980|isbn=0-231-03733-3}}
First discovered and described in 1921 by American vertebrate paleontologist Childs Frick, T. merriami lived at the same time, and perhaps many of the same locations, as T. californicus,{{Cite book|author=C. Janis|date=1984|title=Tapirs as living fossils|others= N. Eldredge and S. Stanley (eds.)|work=Living Fossils|location= New York|publisher= Springer-Verlag|pages=80–86}} 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.[http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/pdf/contrib_science/CS406.pdf Jefferson, George T. Contributions in Science: Late Cenozoic Tapirs (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) of Western North America]