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ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
Among living bears the nearest relation of the Andean species 
seems to be the Malayan bear (Ursus malayanus) inhabiting 
the Malay peninsula and neighbouring countries. But the 
European Miocene Ursus boeckhi and the Pliocene Ursus 
etruscus are members of the same group, and it appears to me 
possible that the South American Tremarotos and the Ursus 
malayanus groups may have had a common ancestor which 
passed from southern Europe to South America by way of the 
mid-Atlantic land bridge and the Antilles in Oligocene times. 
Although tapirs have a much wider range in South America 
than bears, their American distribution also suggests that, 
like the bears, they are immigrants either from Europe or 
Asia. Their general range is in so far comparable to the 
distribution just cited as the only living tapirs are confined 
to South America and southern Asia. Tapirs are often alluded 
to as among the most striking and familar instances of what 
is called “ discontinuous distribution.” But we know a good 
deal more of the geological history of tapirs than of bears. Of 
the two South American tapirs the smaller one is confined to 
tho Andes between Colombia and Peru, while the other 
(Tapirus americanus) has probably spread eastward from a 
western centre of dispersal, for it occurs from eastern Peru to 
Brazil, Venezuela, Guiana and to northern Argentina. Two 
other tapirs live in Central America. The genus is only known 
fossil from Pleistocene South American deposits, and it might 
appear as if it were a recent immigrant from North America. 
But in the latter continent only a single fossil species 
(Tapirus haysi) has been discovered, and that likewise in 
Pleistocene beds. Professor Osborn asserts that a tapir, un- 
distinguishable from the living South American species 
(Tapirus americanus), invaded North America together with 
Mylodon and Megatherium in Pleistocene times. I am not 
aware of any reliable osteological characters distinguishing the 
living South and Central American species. If there are such, 
Professor Osborn’s * statement may possibly refer to one of 
the latter. Still, it is quite evident that the genus Tapirus 
could not have come across any Bering Strait land connection 
in Pleistocene times and have travelled to Argentina before 
* Osborn, H. F., “Age of Mammals,” p. 472. 
