60 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
The skulls of recent tapirs with which the fossil tapir is here 
compared are. contained in the collection of the U. S. National 
Museum. For the privilege of consulting this collection of 
skulls the writer is indebted to the officials of the Museum. 
For the measurements on the skull of Tapirella dowi as well 
as some supplementary measurements of some of the other 
skulls the writer is indebted to the. kindness of Dr. O. P. 
Hay. In selecting skulls for comparative measurements, those 
of mature individuals have been used. The only exception 
is in the skull of T. roulini, which is from a scarcely ma- 
ture animal. The tapir skulls used in these measurements are 
the following, all of which are in the National Museum collection: 
Tapinis indiciis, No. 14648; T. terrestris, No. 198; T. roulini , No. 
12759; Tapirella bairdii, No. 13486; T. dowi , No. 11282. 
In generic and family characters the skull of the Pleistocene 
tapir is in agreement with that of modern tapirs. The nasal bones 
are placed equally as far back on the skull; the spiral grooves, 
although shallow, are broad and well marked ; and the third incisor 
is enlarged at the expense of the. canine. The proboscis as indicated 
by these skull characters was well developed. 
Although agreeing in these general features, the skull of this 
Pleistocene species is found to present many differences from that 
of any one of the living species. In side view the skull is notice- 
ably flat topped, the nasals lying approximately in a plane with the 
top of the skull. The sagittal crest is but slightly developed, being 
represented by a slight ridge, bounded by two raised lines. The 
sides of the cranium are full and well rounded. The occipital crest 
is pronounced, and the lambdoidal ridges widely separated. The 
spiral groove is broad and shallow, much of it being on the nasals. 
The lachrymal bone is large and rises almost vertically, in side view 
obscuring the nasal process of the maxillaries. A lachrymal pit is 
present. The palate is arched in transverse section, and is rela- 
tively deep, exceeding in depth that of the recent species by several 
millimeters. The posterior narial opening narrows backward, while 
in all recent species this opening widens backward. 
In these skull characters this Pleistocene species differs more or 
less from all of the existing tapirs. The immature individuals of 
the modern species have flat topped skulls, with but slight develop- 
ment of the crest, although in the adult stage a crest is present, and 
