Kingdom Animalia Class Mammalia Family Tapiridae Scientific name Tapirus polkensis | Phylum Chordata Order Perissodactyla Genus Tapirus Rank Species | |
Similar Plionarctos, Megatapirus, Tapirus kabomani, Teleoceras, Pristinailurus | ||
Tapirus polkensis, the pygmy tapir, is a small prehistoric tapir that lived in North America during the Late Miocene and early Pliocene. T. polkensis may lived in swamps, where it would have been preyed on by ancestors of modern American crocodiles. T. polkensis had an estimated mass of around 125 kg (276 lb), making it smaller than any extant tapir, save for the recently discovered little black tapir, T. kabomani, which weighs 110 kg (240 lb)
References
Tapirus polkensis Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA