xxx. 4 



TAPIRS 



727 



gait was digitigrade, with rather long metapodials and with hoofs, the 

 front leg having four and the hind-leg three toes, the central ones the 

 longest. These animals were already distinctly horse-like, in spite of 

 their small size, and they probably lived in forests, browsing on the 

 leaves. 



From a population of animals of this type there evolved a varied 



Fig. 481. Malayan tapir, Tapirus. (From photographs.) 



Fig. 482. Skull of the tapir. (After Reynolds, The Vertebrate 

 Skeleton, Cambridge.) 



host of herbivores (Fig. 480), which may be divided into six main 

 types: the tapirs, remaining with little change; the rhinoceroses, 

 becoming large and heavy-bodied; brontotheres (titanotheres), also 

 becoming large; palaeotheres, an early horse-like line; chalicotheres, 

 which secondarily acquired claws, and finally the horses themselves. 

 Of course each of these lines had many subdivisions and branches, 

 producing a most complex evolutionary bush. 



4. Suborder Ceratomorpha, tapirs and rhinoceroses 



The modern tapirs of Central and South America, Malaya, and the 

 East Indies (Fig. 481) are nocturnal creatures, mostly living in forests 

 on damp, soft ground; they have retained many of the conditions of 



