Giant tapir

Giant tapir
Temporal range: Middle to Late Pleistocene
Skeletal reconstruction of the holotype.
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Tapiridae
Genus: Tapirus
Species:
T. augustus
Binomial name
Tapirus augustus
Matthew & Granger, 1923
Synonyms
  • Megatapirus augustus (Matthew & Granger, 1923)

The giant tapir (Tapirus augustus) is an extinct species of tapir that lived in southern China, Vietnam and Laos, with reports suggesting it also lived in Taiwan, Java, and potentially Borneo. The species has been recorded from Middle and Late Pleistocene. There is only weak evidence for a Holocene survival. Tapirus augustus was larger than any living tapir, with an estimated weight of about 623 kilograms (1,373 lb). The species was also placed in its own genus of Megatapirus, however, it is now conventionally placed within Tapirus.

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