{{Short description|Extinct species of large Tapir}} {{Speciesbox | name = Giant tapir | fossil_range = Middle to Late Pleistocene | image = MegatapirusskeletalAugustiosPaleo.png | image_caption = Skeletal reconstruction of the holotype. | image2 = MegatapirusDB.jpg | image2_caption = A restoration of ''Tapirus augustus'' | extinct = yes | genus = Tapirus | species = augustus | authority = Matthew & Granger, 1923 | synonyms = *''Megatapirus augustus'' <small>(Matthew & Granger, 1923)</small> *''Tapirus'' (''Megatapirus'') ''augustus'' <small>Matthew & Granger, 1923</small> }} '''''Tapirus''' '''augustus''','' also known as the '''giant tapir'''<ref name=":10" /> is an extinct species of large tapir that lived in East and Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. Remains have been reported from across southern China, as well as in Vietnam and Laos, spanning the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Evidence for a Holocene survival is considered questionable. ''Tapirus augustus'' is the largest known tapir, with an estimated weight of about {{convert|623|kg|lb}}. The species is often placed in its own genus '''''Megatapirus''','' but its placement in a separate genus has been questioned.
== History of discovery, taxonomy and evolution == The paleontologist Max Schlosser of the Palaeontological Museum, Munich was the first to discover what would later be recognised to be remains of ''Tapirus augustus'' while purchasing teeth from Chinese drug stores in 1903 (fossils such as these were regarded as "dragon bones" and were collected to be used in traditional Chinese medicine) which he assigned to the species ''Tapirus sinensis''.<ref name=":0">Hooijer, D. A. (1947). [https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/318241/ZM1947027003.pdf On fossil and prehistoric remains of Tapirus from Java, Sumatra and China.] ''Zoologische Mededelingen'', ''27''(3), 253–299.</ref> The species was first described in 1923 by William Diller Matthew and Walter Granger based on a skull, an upper jaw fragment of another skull, and two lower jaws found by the American Museum of Natural History during the museum's 1920s "Central Asiatic Expeditions" (which despite their name, took place almost entirely in China and Mongolia<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Museum of Natural History Research Library: Central Asiatic Expeditions (1921-1930) (amnhc_2000167) |url=https://data.library.amnh.org/archives-authorities/id/amnhc_2000167 |access-date=2025-10-02 |website=data.library.amnh.org}}</ref>) in the fissure fill deposits of Yen-ching-kao (now romanised to Yanjinggou), near Wanzhou in what was then part of Sichuan but what is now part of Chongqing province in southwest China.<ref name="1871-1930. 1923">{{Cite journal |last1=Matthew |first1=William Diller |last2=Granger |first2=Walter |last3=Andrews |first3=Roy Chapman |date=1923 |title=New fossil mammals from the Pliocene of Sze-chuan, China |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=48 |page=17 |hdl=2246/1308}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=ShaoKun |last2=Pang |first2=LiBo |last3=He |first3=CunDing |last4=Wei |first4=GuangBiao |last5=Huang |first5=WanBo |last6=Yue |first6=ZongYing |last7=Zhang |first7=XiaoHu |last8=Zhang |first8=Hua |last9=Qin |first9=Li |date=November 2013 |title=New discoveries from the classic Quaternary mammalian fossil area of Yanjinggou, Chongqing, and their chronological explanations |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11434-013-5839-6 |journal=Chinese Science Bulletin |language=en |volume=58 |issue=31 |pages=3780–3787 |doi=10.1007/s11434-013-5839-6 |issn=1001-6538}}</ref> They regarded it as being so distinctive as to tentatively warrant being placed in the new subgenus ''Megatapirus'', (from Greek μέγας, ''megas'', meaning 'big', 'tall' or 'great')''.''<ref name="1871-1930. 1923" /> A number of authors have later considered ''Megatapirus'' to be a valid genus in its own right,<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Tong |first=Haowen |date=January 2005 |title=Dental characters of the Quaternary tapirs in China, their significance in classification and phylogenetic assessment |journal=Geobios |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=139–150 |bibcode=2005Geobi..38..139T |doi=10.1016/j.geobios.2003.07.006}}</ref> but phylogenetic analyses suggest that the species is nested within the genus ''Tapirus,<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Van Linden |first1=Lisa |last2=Stoops |first2=Kim |last3=Dumbá |first3=Larissa C. C. S. |last4=Cozzuol |first4=Mario A. |last5=MacLaren |first5=Jamie A. |date=March 2023 |title=Sagittal crest morphology decoupled from relative bite performance in Pleistocene tapirs (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1749-4877.12627 |journal=Integrative Zoology |language=en |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=254–277 |doi=10.1111/1749-4877.12627 |pmid=35048523 |issn=1749-4877}}</ref>'' and as such other authors have continued to argue for ''Megatapirus'' to be treated a subgenus of ''Tapirus'' rather than as a separate genus.<ref name=":9" />
The closest living relative of ''Tapirus augustus'' is suggested to be the Malayan tapir (''Tapirus indicus''), based on phylogenetic analysis.<ref name=":3"/> ''Tapirus augustus'' is suggested to be related to the earlier large tapir species ''Tapirus sinensis'', known from the Early Pleistocene of China,<ref name=":9">{{Citation |last1=MacLaren |first1=Jamie A. |title=The Fossil Record of Tapirs |date=2024 |work=Tapirs of the World |pages=25–59 |editor-last=Melletti |editor-first=Mario |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-65311-7_2 |access-date=2025-09-30 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-65311-7_2 |isbn=978-3-031-65310-0 |last2=Holbrook |first2=Luke T. |editor2-last=Reyna-Hurtado |editor2-first=Rafael |editor3-last=Medici |editor3-first=Patrícia}}</ref> and has been argued to have probably descended from this species.<ref name=":1" /> The earliest fossils attributed to the species date to the Middle Pleistocene,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liao |first1=Wei |last2=Liang |first2=Hua |last3=Li |first3=Jinyan |last4=Wang |first4=Wei |date=2023-01-03 |title=Early Pleistocene large-mammal assemblage associated with Gigantopithecus at Chuifeng Cave, Bubing Basin, South China |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2022.2161381 |journal=Historical Biology |language=en |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2022.2161381 |issn=0891-2963}}</ref> at least as early as 300–400,000 years ago.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last1=Cranbrook |first1=Earl of |last2=Piper |first2=Philip J. |date=March 2013 |title=Paleontology to policy: the Quaternary history of Southeast Asian tapirs (Tapiridae) in relation to large mammal species turnover, with a proposal for conservation of Malayan tapir by reintroduction to Borneo |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-4877.2012.00319.x |journal=Integrative Zoology |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=95–120 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-4877.2012.00319.x |pmid=23586564 |issn=1749-4877}}</ref>
== Description == {{Multiple image | direction = vertical | image1 = Tapirus (Megatapirus) augustus skull (cropped).jpg | caption1 = Restored holotype skull from Yanjinggou, China, on display at the American Museum of Natural History | image2 = Megatapirus augustus 2.JPG | caption2 = Teeth. | align = left }} The skull of ''Tapirus augustus'' is large, on average 25% larger than those of living tapirs such as the Malayan tapir and the South American tapir (''Tapirus terrestris''), and proportionally is distinctly short and deep in comparison to other ''Tapirus'' species, with a high and thick vomer bone, noticeably moreso than in the Malayan or South American tapir.<ref name=":1" /> The top of the skull has a well developed high sagittal crest.<ref name=":3" /> The frontmost premolar teeth are more molar-like in their morphology than their counterparts in the Malayan tapir, and they have better developed inner cusps and cingulum, particularly on the upper first premolar (P<sup>1</sup>).<ref name=":1" /> ''Tapirus augustus'' is the largest known species of ''Tapirus'' and of Tapiridae,<ref>{{Citation |last=Zhang |first=Hanwen |title=Late Pleistocene of East Asia |date=2025 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science |pages=479–500 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780323999311002725 |access-date=2025-09-05 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1016/b978-0-323-99931-1.00272-5 |isbn=978-0-443-29997-1 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> with a 2018 study estimating a body mass of approximately {{convert|623|kg|lb}}.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=MacLaren |first1=Jamie A |last2=Hulbert |first2=Richard C |last3=Wallace |first3=Steven C |last4=Nauwelaerts |first4=Sandra |date=2018-10-05 |title=A morphometric analysis of the forelimb in the genus ''Tapirus'' (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) reveals influences of habitat, phylogeny and size through time and across geographical space |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=184 |issue=2 |pages=499–515 |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zly019}}</ref> In comparison to the living Malayan tapir, its forelimb bones, in particular the humerus, are considerably less robust and more similar to those American ''Tapirus'' species.<ref name=":2" />
== Distribution == ''Tapirus augustus'' is known from localities across Southern China,<ref name=":1" /> ranging as far north as Chongqing<ref name=":7" /> and Hubei,<ref>Tong Haowen, Zhang Bei, Wu Xianzhu, Qu Shengming. [https://www.anthropol.ac.cn/EN/abstract/abstract1985.shtml Mammalian fossils from the Middle Pleistocene human site of Bailongdong in Yunxi, Hubei][J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2019, 38(04): 613-640. 10.16359/j.cnki.cn11-1963/q.2019.0064</ref> eastwards to Fujian,<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Zhi-wen |last2=Sun |first2=Li |last3=Li |first3=Bao-sheng |last4=Wang |first4=Feng-nian |last5=Du |first5=Ding-ding |last6=Song |first6=You-gui |last7=Zhang |first7=Hui-Juan |last8=Chen |first8=Liu-qin |last9=Xu |first9=Dan |date=February 2022 |title=East Asian summer monsoon changes in subtropical China since late Pleistocene: Evidence from the Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11629-021-6985-y |journal=Journal of Mountain Science |language=en |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=418–432 |doi=10.1007/s11629-021-6985-y |issn=1672-6316}}</ref> southwards to Guangdong<ref name=":8" /> and Guangxi,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pan |first1=Yue |last2=Zhang |first2=Yingqi |last3=Yang |first3=Liyun |last4=Takai |first4=Masanaru |last5=Harrison |first5=Terry |last6=Westaway |first6=Kira |last7=Jin |first7=Changzhu |date=October 2025 |title=Preliminary description of a late Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna prior to the extinction of Gigantopithecus blacki from the Yixiantian Cave, Guangxi ZAR, South China |url=https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25200 |journal=The Anatomical Record |language=en |volume=308 |issue=10 |pages=2730–2755 |doi=10.1002/ar.25200 |issn=1932-8486}}</ref> and westwards to Yunnan.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Jian-Hui |last2=Ruan |first2=Qi-Jun |last3=Ge |first3=Jun-Yi |last4=Huang |first4=Yong-Jiang |last5=Zhang |first5=Xiao-Ling |last6=Liu |first6=Jia |last7=Li |first7=Shu-Feng |last8=Shen |first8=Hui |last9=Wang |first9=Yuan |last10=Stidham |first10=Thomas A. |last11=Deng |first11=Cheng-Long |last12=Li |first12=Sheng-Hua |last13=Han |first13=Fei |last14=Jin |first14=Ying-Shuai |last15=O’Gorman |first15=Kieran |date=2025-07-03 |title=300,000-year-old wooden tools from Gantangqing, southwest China |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr8540 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=389 |issue=6755 |pages=78–83 |doi=10.1126/science.adr8540 |pmid=40608932 |issn=0036-8075}}</ref> It also occurred in southeast Asia, with records from Vietnam and Laos.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Louys |first1=Julien |last2=Curnoe |first2=Darren |last3=Tong |first3=Haowen |date=January 2007 |title=Characteristics of Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in Southeast Asia |url=https://doc.rero.ch/record/16043/files/PAL_E3832.pdf |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=243 |issue=1–2 |pages=152–173 |bibcode=2007PPP...243..152L |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.07.011}}</ref> Although historically suggested to be present in Taiwan,<ref>陳光祖(Kwang-Tzuu Chen) (2000) [https://web.archive.org/web/20190921075800/http://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/3111QQPWEMU.pdf 試論臺灣各時代的哺乳動物群及其相關 問題——臺灣地區動物考古學研究的 基礎資料之一(上篇)] [A Preliminary Study of Taiwan's Mammal Fauna from Various Periods and Related Issues: Basic Data for Zooarchaeological Research in Taiwan (Part 1)] 《中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊》[Journal of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica] p. 141</ref> this suggestion is not supported by current research.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kawamura |first1=Ai |last2=Chang |first2=Chun-Hsiang |last3=Kawamura |first3=Yoshinari |date=March 2016 |title=Middle Pleistocene to Holocene mammal faunas of the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan: An updated review incorporating results of recent research |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618215006448 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=397 |pages=117–135 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.06.044}}</ref>
== Ecology == ''Tapirus augustus'' is considered like other tapirs to have probably been a browsing animal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Teng |first1=Shuqing N. |last2=Svenning |first2=Jens-Christian |last3=Xu |first3=Chi |date=October 2023 |title=Large mammals and trees in eastern monsoonal China: anthropogenic losses since the Late Pleistocene and restoration prospects in the Anthropocene |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.12968 |journal=Biological Reviews |language=en |volume=98 |issue=5 |pages=1607–1632 |doi=10.1111/brv.12968 |pmid=37102332 |issn=1464-7931}}</ref> It is thought to have lived in tropical rainforest environments,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2025-04-20 |others=Bai Wei-Peng, Dong Wei, Zhang Li-Min, Liu Wen-Hui |title=The Pleistocene mammalian forest dwellers in monsoon dominated provinces of China as forest dynamics proxies |url=https://www.vertpala.ac.cn/EN/10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250311 |journal=Vertebrata PalAsiatica |language=en |volume=63 |issue=2 |doi=10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250311 |issn=2096-9899 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250516232440/https://www.vertpala.ac.cn/EN/10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250311 |archive-date=2025-05-16 |access-date=2025-10-01 |url-status=live }}</ref> likely in close vicinity of water, such as marshland and river banks.<ref name=":8" /> Some authors have suggested that it fulfilled a similar ecological role to hippopotamuses, given the absence of hippotamuses in the region which ''Tapirus augustus'' inhabited.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tong |first=HaoWen |date=2007-09-01 |title=Occurrences of warm-adapted mammals in north China over the Quaternary Period and their paleo-environmental significance |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-0096-7 |journal=Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences |language=en |volume=50 |issue=9 |pages=1327–1340 |doi=10.1007/s11430-007-0096-7 |issn=1862-2801}}</ref> In southern China, ''Tapirus augustus'' formed part of the "''Ailuropoda-Stegodon'' fauna" alongside animals both living in the region today as well as those that are extinct, including the giant panda ancestor ''Ailuropoda baconi,'' the Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus'') the extinct elephant-relative ''Stegodon orientalis'', the Sumatran rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)'', the extinct rhinoceros ''Rhinoceros sinensis'' (which may in reality actually represent the living Indian rhinoceros, ''Rhinoceros unicornis''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Filoux |first1=Arnaud |last2=Suteethorn |first2=Varavudh |date=February 2018 |title=A late Pleistocene skeleton of Rhinoceros unicornis (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) from western part of Thailand (Kanchanaburi Province) |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0016699517301055 |journal=Geobios |language=en |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=31–49 |doi=10.1016/j.geobios.2017.12.003}}</ref>)'','' wild boar ''(Sus scrofa'')'','' muntjac, water buffalo, sika deer (''Cervus nippon''), extinct species of orangutans (''Pongo'')'','' gibbons (''Hylobates''), tigers (''Panthera tigris''), and the extinct cave hyena (''Crocuta ultima'').<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Liang |first1=Hua |last2=Liao |first2=Wei |last3=Shao |first3=Qingfeng |last4=Chen |first4=Qiong |last5=Tian |first5=Chun |last6=Yao |first6=Yanyan |last7=Li |first7=Jinyan |last8=Wang |first8=Wei |date=2022-11-06 |title=New discovery of a late Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna in Ganxian Cave, Southern China |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2022.2139180 |journal=Historical Biology |language=en |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2022.2139180 |issn=0891-2963}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Hu |first1=Haiqian |last2=Tong |first2=Haowen |last3=Shao |first3=Qingfeng |last4=Wei |first4=Guangbiao |last5=Yu |first5=Haidong |last6=Shi |first6=Jingsong |last7=Wang |first7=Xunqian |last8=Xiong |first8=Can |last9=Lin |first9=Yu |last10=Li |first10=Ning |last11=Wei |first11=Zhaoying |last12=Wang |first12=Ping |last13=Jiangzuo |first13=Qigao |date=March 2023 |title=New remains of Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi from Yanjinggou, China: Throwing light on the evolution of giant pandas during the Pleistocene |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10914-022-09637-1 |journal=Journal of Mammalian Evolution |language=en |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=137–154 |doi=10.1007/s10914-022-09637-1 |issn=1064-7554}}</ref><ref name=":8" />
== Relationship with humans == Remains of ''Tapirus augustus'' are frequently associated with stone tools and human remains in Late Pleistocene cave sites across the species range in southern China and Southeast Asia, which may suggest that they were consumed by people, but there is generally not direct evidence of hunting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corlett |first=Richard T. |date=May 2007 |title=The Impact of Hunting on the Mammalian Fauna of Tropical Asian Forests |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00271.x |journal=Biotropica |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=292–303 |doi=10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00271.x |issn=0006-3606}}</ref> Remains of ''Tapirus augustus'' alongside those of other animals found in Ma’anshan cave in Guizhou Province, southwest China, in two layers dating to around 55,000 and 31–19,000 years ago respectively, are suggested to have been brought into the cave and butchered by humans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Yue |last2=Stiner |first2=Mary C. |last3=Dennell |first3=Robin |last4=Wang |first4=Chunxue |last5=Zhang |first5=Shuangquan |last6=Gao |first6=Xing |date=August 2010 |title=Zooarchaeological perspectives on the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic from the Ma'anshan site (Guizhou, South China) |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0305440310001123 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |language=en |volume=37 |issue=8 |pages=2066–2077 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.012}}</ref>
== Extinction == Although ''Tapirus augustus'' has been suggested to have survived into the Holocene, perhaps as recently as 5,600-4,200 years ago based on indirect associated radiocarbon dates on the bones of other animals and wood, the quality of these dates, like those of other southern Chinese Pleistocene megafauna have been considered questionable, and the youngest reliable dates for ''Tapirus augustus'' are considered to date to the Late Pleistocene.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Turvey |first1=Samuel T. |last2=Tong |first2=Haowen |last3=Stuart |first3=Anthony J. |last4=Lister |first4=Adrian M. |date=September 2013 |title=Holocene survival of Late Pleistocene megafauna in China: a critical review of the evidence |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=76 |pages=156–166 |bibcode=2013QSRv...76..156T |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.030}}</ref> At Qingshuiyuan Dadong cave in Guizhou, remains of ''Tapirus augustus'' may date as recently as 13–11,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Xinglong |last2=Pei |first2=Shuwen |last3=Wu |first3=Xiaohong |last4=Bar-Yosef |first4=Ofer |date=March 2017 |title=Qingshuiyuan Dadong: A newly discovered Late Paleolithic site in Guizhou province, China |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352226716300629 |journal=Archaeological Research in Asia |language=en |volume=9 |pages=13–21 |doi=10.1016/j.ara.2016.12.002}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Extinct animals of Indonesia Category:Prehistoric tapirs Category:Pleistocene Perissodactyla Category:Holocene extinctions Category:Pleistocene mammals of Asia Category:Fossil taxa described in 1923 Category:Fossils of Vietnam Category:Fossils of Taiwan