372 UNGULATA 
once have had a very wide distribution. There is no proof of their 
having lived in the Eocene epoch, but in deposits of Miocene and 
Pliocene date remains undistinguishable generically from the modern 
Tapirs, and described as 7. priscus, T. arvernensis, etc., have been 
found in France, Germany, and in the Red Crag of Suffolk. Tapirs 
appear, however, to have become extinct in Europe before the 
Pleistocene period, since none of their bones or teeth have been found 
in any of the caverns or alluvial deposits in which those of Elephants, 
Rhinoceroses, and Hippopotamuses occur in abundance; but in other 
regions their distribution at this age was far wider than at present, 
Fia. 152.—The American Tapir (Tapirus americanus). 
as they are known to have extended eastward to China (Z. sinensis, 
Owen) and westwards over the greater part of the southern United 
States of America, from South Carolina to California. Lund also 
distinguished two species or varieties from the caves of Brazil, one 
of which appears identical with 7. americanus. Thus we have no 
difficulty in tracing the common origin in the Miocene Tapirs of 
Europe of the now widely separated American and Asiatic species. 
It is, moreover, interesting to observe how very slight an amount 
of variation has taken place in forms isolated durin 
enormous period of time. . 
The anatomy of the soft parts of the Tapirs! conforms to the 
g such an 
1 See J. Murie, Journ. Anat. and Physiol. vol. vi. p. 131, 1871 ; W.N,. Parker 
Proce, Zool. Soc, 1882, p. 768; and F. E. Beddard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 252, ; 
