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Rhinos and tapirs are more closely related to each other than to horses. The separation of horses from other perissodactyls took place according to molecular genetic analysis in the Paleocene some 56 million years ago, while the rhinos and tapirs split off in the lower-middle Eocene , about 47 million years ago.
Brontotheriidae is a family of extinct mammals belonging to the order Perissodactyla, the order that includes horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs.Superficially, they looked rather like rhinos with some developing bony nose horns, and were some of the earliest mammals to have evolved large body sizes of several tonnes.
Perissodactyls range in size from the 1.8 m (6 ft) long Baird's tapir to the 4 m (13 ft) long white rhinoceros. Over 50 million domesticated donkeys and 58 million horses are used in farming worldwide, while four species of perissodactyl have potentially fewer than 200 members remaining.
Tapiroidea is a superfamily of perissodactyls which includes the modern tapirs and their extinct relatives. Taxonomically, they are placed in suborder Ceratomorpha along with the rhino superfamily, Rhinocerotoidea.The first members of Tapiroidea appeared during the Early Eocene, 55 million years ago, and were present in North America and Asia during the Eocene.
The 1.5-m-long beast was related to palaeotheres, and suspected to be the ancestor of modern tapirs and rhinoceroses.Physically, it would have looked very similar to modern tapirs, although it probably lacked the tapir's characteristic proboscis.
] Outside strict biological classification, the related term pachyderm is commonly used to describe elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses and tapirs. Cuvier himself defined Pachydermata as "animals with hoofs, non ruminants", whereas Storr had described it as "mammals with hoofs with more than two toes".
Articles relating to the Ceratomorpha, consisting of tapirs and rhinos plus their extinct members (Tapiroidea and Rhinocerotoidea). Subcategories This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
Tapirs have four toes in the front, yet they were members of the "odd-toed" order; peccaries and modern cetaceans were members of the "even-toed" order, yet peccaries have three toes in the front and whales were an extreme example as they have flippers instead of hooves.