tapiridæ

pl. [Mod. Lat. tapir (us); Lat. fem. pl. adj. suff.- idœ.] 1. Zool .: A family of Peri odactyl a (q. v.), with a single genus. [TAPIRUS.] 2. Palæont . There are several fo il genera, commencing in the Eocene. ta-pir-o-don, s. [Eng., . tapir, and Gr. odous (gen it. odontos ) = a tooth.] Palæont .: A genus of Mammals having teeth like those of the tapir. One species, from the Red Crag. tā-pir-6id, a. [Eng. tapir ; -oid.] Allied to the tapir or the tapir family. "In France it is a ociated with two tapiroid genera." -Dawkins : Early Man in Britain , ch. ii. tā-pir-ŭs, s. [Mod. Lat., from tapir (q. v.).] 1. Zool .: A genus of Tapiride, from the Neo tropical and Oriental sub-regions. Nose prolonged into a short, movable proboscis, skin very thick and covered with close, short hair, neck furnished with a kind of stiff mane; tail very short, ears small, erect, and pig-like; four toes on the fore feet, three on the hind feet, separate, and ending in nail-like hoofs; skull pyramidal, as in the hog, with the nasal bones much arched for the muscles of the proboscis. The apparent anomaly of cla ing animals with four toes with the Peri odactyl a is explained by the fact that one of the toes (the fifth digit) is non-functional, and does not touch the ground. Authorities differ greatly as to the number of species from America, one of which has been separated generically by Gill under the name of Elasmognathus. Tapirus malayanus is from the Malay Peninsula and adjacent islands. The genus is allied both to Sus and Rhinoceros. 2. Palæont.: The genus appears first in the Miocene, and is widely distributed in the Post-Pliocene of North America.