potamus; hence the epithet applied to the Tapir. But as a matter of fact it loves marshy neighbourhoods, and is in a way amphibious. This does not of course apply to the Andesian T. roulini, which inhabits the cordillera of Ecuador and Colombia. The distribution of existing Tapirs is, as is so often the case, restricted when compared with that of their extinct congeners and allies. In Europe the remains of the genus Tapirus are abundant from Pliocene strata, and its remains are there known from as far back as the Miocene. The genus is thus one of the very oldest forms of Mammalia at present inhabiting the earth.
Fig. 129.—Malayan Tapir. Tapirus indicus, young. × 1⁄10. (From Nature.)
The Malayan Tapir is to be distinguished from the American (T. terrestris—the other species have not been dissected) by the greater development of the valvulae conniventes in the intestine, the absence of a moderator band in the heart, and the less elongated caecum, which is sacculated by only three bands, there being four in T. terrestris.[1] The animal frequents the most retired spots among the hill woods, by which habit it seems
- ↑ See Beddard, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 252, and other papers there cited, for the anatomy of the Tapir.
