FOSSIL VERTEBRATES— MAMMALIA 167 



have their origin in the earliest Eocene from some animal closely 

 related to the HyracotJierium. In general they were stout-bodied 

 animals of medium size, with three digits on the posterior foot 

 and four on the anterior ; the upper teeth developed in the more 

 recent forms a pair of transverse parallel ridges that are charac- 

 teristic of the group. 



Early in the history of the group it divided into the two 

 families, which took different lines of development, the Tapi- 

 ridae working out the condition of the modern Tapirs and the 

 Lophiodontidae, which assumed somewhat the characters of the 

 rhinoceroses and became extinct in the late Eocene or Middle 

 Miocene. 



Tapiridae. — The line of development of the modern Tapirs is 

 expressed as follows by VVortman and Earle : Systemodou of the 

 Wind River ; hectolophus latidem, Bridger ; /. annectens, Uinta ; 

 Protapirus, White River, and possibly Tapiravus, of the Loup 

 Fork. Speaking of this family, Smith Woodward says: "The 

 family thus characterized dates back to the Lower Miocene 

 (White River Formation) in the United States of America, and 

 apparently to the same remote period in Europe. In the Tapirs 

 of this early date the premolars are slightly simpler than those of 

 the surviving genus Tapirus ; while Tapiravus, ranging through 

 the Miocene and Pliocene of North America, is still somewhat 

 primitive in the same feature. The typical Tapirus itself, how- 

 ever, is represented in Europe by several fine specimens from 

 the Lower Pliocene of Eppelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt [T. pris- 

 cus), and from the corresponding formations in Hungary and 

 southeastern Austria; also by remains from the Pliocene of 

 France and Italy, and by detached teeth from the Red Crag of 

 Suffolk. It is also to be noted that other teeth, indistinguish- 

 able from those of Tapirus, occur in an Upper Tertiary (probably 

 Pliocene) formation in China. It is thus evident that during 

 Miocene and Pliocene times these animals ranged over most of 

 the warm and temperate lands of the northern hemisphere. 

 Hence is explained the remarkable distribution of the existing 

 Tapirs, which are confined to two widely separated areas, namely, 



