The Tapirus from Camp dels Ninots (NE Iberia): implications for morphology, morphometry and phylogeny of Neogene Tapiridae

Abstract

Western Eurasian Neogene tapirids are an intriguing but poorly known and poorly documented group of mammals. As the Western Eurasian Tapiridae are mainly represented by scanty and fragmented remains, their systematics have been the subject of debate. Here, we describe exquisite tapirid material from the late Pliocene locality of Camp dels Ninots (CN), North-East Iberia, providing new information on the taxonomy, morphological and morphometric variability, and phylogeny of fossil species. The material studied comprises five crania of different ages, shedding new light on the ontogenetic patterns of fossil European tapirs and their variability. The adult specimens from CN are morphologically similar to other latest Pliocene tapirs from Vialette (France) and Villafranca d’Asti (Italy), and are referred here to the species Tapirus arvernensis. Further, the differences detected among the animals of different ages shed light on the variability of some features and aid in reconsidering the validity of some fossil species. A new cladistic analysis of fossil Tapiridae suggests T. arvernensis is closely related to T. indicus, and is probably an Asian immigrant. Other latest Miocene fossil species, Tapiriscus balkanicus and Ta. pannonicus, are resolved sister taxa and probably represent endemic species of Europe that were replaced by T. arvernensis.

Keywords:

• morphology
• ontogeny
• morphometry
• phylogeny
• Neogene
• Eurasia
• Tapiridae

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Editor Z. Johanson, the Associate Editor J. Tissier, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and fruitful criticism and comments. LP thanks the European Community Research Infrastructure Action, EU-SYNTHESYS project AT-TAF-2550, DE-TAF-3049, GB-TAF-2825, HU-TAF-3593, HU-TAF-5477, ES-TAF-2997, IL-TAF-1324; part of this research received support from the SYNTHESYS Project http://www.synthesys.info/which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 ‘Capacities’ Program. LP thanks L. Costeur (NMB), E. Cioppi (IGF), G. Manganelli (MSNAF), C. Sorbini (MSNP), M. Contessi (MGGC) and all the curators of Synthesys-funded institutes for their help and assistance during our visits to fossil collections. A part of this work has been developed under the Palaeontological Association grant no. PA-SB202103 (L.P.). JM-M has been funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación-European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (CGL2017-82654-P, AEI/FEDER-UE) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Program). JM-M is also a member of the consolidated research group 2017 SGR 116 (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya). LS was funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2019 FI_B 00579) with the support of the ‘Secreteriat d’Universitats i de Recerca from the Generalitat de Catalunya’ and the European Social Fund; the MINECO project PID2020-116908GB-I00; and the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA Programme). LS is part of the consolidated research group 2021 SGR 00620 (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya). FG was funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2022 FI_00383). The authors thank the excavation teams that have worked at Camp del Ninots since 2003, the land owners of the fields involved and the town council of Caldes de Malavella for their logistical and financial support. Funding for this research was provided by the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya project no. CLT009/22/00043, by the Catalan Government research group nos. 2021 SGR 01238 and 2021 SGR 01237, and by the Spanish Government project PID2019-103987 GB-C31 and PID2021-123092NB-C21. The research of GC, BGS and FG is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ programme for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2023.2250117.

Associate Editor: Jérémy Tissier

Additional information

Funding

The Palaeontological Association; Agencia Estatal de Investigación-European Regional Development Fund of the European Union; the Generalitat de Catalunya; the MINECO project; the Spanish Government; the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “María de Maeztu” program for Units of Excellence.