r-*' 



THE 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



[FOURTH SERIES. 1 



Aet. XVII. — Recent and Fossil Tapirs ; by J. B. Hatcher. 

 (With Plates II-V.) 



[This investigation was aided by a grant from the Elizabeth Thompson Fund of 



the A. A. A. S.] 



The existing Tapirs present many characters of peculiar 

 interest, and in some respects, as for example, geographical dis- 

 tribution and conservativeness in accomplishing anatomical 

 changes, they are unique among living Perissodactyls. 

 Remains of fossil Tapirs and closely allied forms, though com- 

 paratively rare, have been found in Tertiary deposits belonging 

 to nearly every period, from the Wahsatch, of the lower 

 Eocene, up to, and including, the Quaternary, and in widely 

 separated localities. 



It is the purpose of this article to describe a new species of 

 Protapirus from the Protoceras oeds of the White River 

 {Oligocene) of S. Dakota; and to add something to our knowl- 

 edge of the osteology of this genus, especially in regard to the 

 skull and fore limb ; to give some additional characters diag- 

 nostic of the various species of Protapirus and Colodon already 

 described by Leidy, Marsh, Wortman, Earle and Osborn ; to 

 point out distinctive osteological and dental characters in the 

 skulls of the five generally accepted species of recent Tapirs / 

 and to review previous work of others on the phylogeny of the 

 Tapiridce and Helaletidw. 



Protapirus (Filhol). 



Wortman and Earle* have recently described, from the 

 Oligocene of S. Dakota, remains of two species of Tapiroids, 



*See Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. v, pp. 159-180. 



Am. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. I, No. 3. — March, 1896. 

 11 



