Family of the Week: The Metazoic Tapirs

At first, this family, Articulostiidae, was almost directly inspired by the eeopie from Star Wars. But I trashed that and instead made these descendants of the tapir more like the prehistoric Macrauchenia from Walking With Prehistoric Beasts. For the most part, these animals also resemble a cross between the tapir, a horse, and a llama. They have large eyes and a long, flexible proboscis, as seen in modern tapirs. The body is more streamlined than those of tapirs though. The legs are longer, much more like in llamas. The neck is long and slender. The ears are small and round. The tails are either really short or non-existent. In one species however, Hippotapirus longicaudatus, the tail is longer and tipped with a tassel, as seen in giraffes. The feet are like those of tapirs though, only more slenderly built. The fur is soft and thick, though not as long as it is in the llamas. But rather short and lies smooth like in camels.

These animals live in herds. The herds usually number up to 20 individuals. They are active during the day. They are vegetarians, feeding on grass mostly, leaves, berries and any other types of vegetation in thier range. Some species even wade in the water for the lucious aquatic plants. Though this is not a common act for them. Most of these species live in the New World, particularly in North America, and some in northern South America. There really are no smaller and larger species, the smallest species is perhaps Hippotapirus floridanus, which stands about 3 feet tall. The largest species stands about 6 feet tall. It is the species Articulostium cameloides. But basically all have much the same body structure and much the same lifestyle.

They are fast animals, capable of reaching speeds of 50 mph easily. This is for good reason. Mongooses and foxes all would love to prey on these animals. They may also fall victim to large snakes, alligators, and even Berofelids. I am as of lately, working on an offshoot family for this group that will exist into 50 million years AM. I will be posting about this "new family" when I can. My time with this computer is running out though, so count on it being a while.