Kabomani tapir
| Kabomani tapir | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tapirus kabomani | ||||||||||||
| Cozzuol , Clozato , Holanda , Rodrigues , Nienow , Thoisy , Redondo & Santos , 2013 |
The Kabomani tapir ( Tapirus kabomani ) is the smallest of the five tapir species living today . It was described for the first time in 2013, making it the first newly discovered odd-toed ungulate in 100 years and the largest newly discovered mammal since the Saola . The holotype was found in the Amazon rainforest in December 2009 . The discussion about the independence of the tapir species is controversial.
description
Habitus
The Kabomani tapir reaches a total length of 130 cm and a shoulder height of about 90 cm. With an average weight of 110 kg, it is smaller than the smallest known species of tapir, the mountain tapir ( Tapirus pinchaque ), which weighs between 150 and 225 kg. The females may be slightly larger than the males. The coat is darker than sympatrically occurring Flachlandtapir ( T. terrestris ) and has a dark gray to dark brown tint. Like this one, he has a mane on his head, but it is wider and starts further back. Females have a light throat spot from the chin over the base of the ears to the neck, similar to the Central American tapir ( T. bairdii ). As with all recent tapir species, the tips of the ears are colored white in both sexes. Furthermore, the snout behind the nose is designed much wider than that of the lowland tapir. The relatively short limbs are also striking compared to the other tapirs of today.
Skull features
The crest , which occurs in all South American tapir species, is characteristic, but is absent in the Central American and black-backed tapir ( T. indicus ). In contrast to the lowland tapir, however, the kabomani tapir is wider and shorter and starts further back, with a triangular, wide fan-out on the frontal bone . In addition, it is lower and does not curve as strongly as the lowland tapir. Further characteristics are the not so strongly upward course of the nasal bone compared to the mountain and Central American tapir and the slightly downward pointing rostrum .
distribution
The Kabomani tapir occurs in South America in the western Amazon , where it has so far been described for the Brazilian states of Amazonas , Rondônia and Mato Grosso , as well as for the Departamento de Amazonas in southern Colombia . The landscape in which the tapir species is proven consists of a mosaic of forests and savannas . Eyewitness reports suggest that the species can also be found in the eastern Amazon in the state of Amapá and in French Guiana .
Way of life
Little is known about the way of life of the Kabomani tapir. Investigated Kotreste were consumed leaves and seeds , among others, the BaBassu and other palmaceae as Attalea and Astrocaryum .
Systematics
General
The Kabomani tapir is a species from the genus of tapirs ( Tapirus ), which has a total of five recent representatives. The tapirs in turn are part of the family of tapirs (Tapiridae). These represent an ancient and evolutionarily very conservative group of mammals from the order of the odd-toed ungulates with only a few changes in characteristics over time. They represent the sister group of rhinos , from which they separated around 47 million years ago, and with them form the Ceratomorpha , which in the unpaired hoof system are compared to the hippomorpha with today's horses .
The genus Tapirus can be detected for the first time in Europe in the Miocene . The early fossil record largely corresponds to the molecular genetic data. According to these, the line of the only recent Asian tapir, the separated Schabrackentapirs ( Tapirus indicus ), from before 21 to 23 million years ago that the Central American tapir ( Tapirus bairdii followed) in front of about 19 to 20 million years. The South American representatives split from this line of development only 3 to 3.5 million years ago. This is possibly related to the immigration of the ancestral form of the South American tapirs to the South American continent after the closure of the Isthmus of Panama and the resulting land bridge. The greater fragmentation of the South American tapirs did not take place until the Middle Pleistocene, 288,000 to 652,000 years ago.
History of discovery and first description
A possible new tapir species was first presented to science in 2011 during an international symposium of the Tapir Specialist Group of the IUCN in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) by a research group led by Mario Cozzuol . The first scientific description of the Kabomani tapir then took place in 2013. The holotype (copy number UFMG 3177) comprises a skeleton with remains of skin from a young male whose rear molar tooth had not yet erupted. This was collected in the southern Amazon in 2009 . Furthermore, several skeletal parts and skulls served as evidence, some of which had been shot by hunters of the local Karitiana tribe in the Brazilian state of Rondônia . One skull was collected by Theodore Roosevelt on the Rio Sepotuba in Mato Grosso as early as 1912 and is now part of the American Museum of Natural History . Furthermore, the tapir species in the western Amazon region could be detected by means of step seals and excrement residues and observed with camera traps . The species name is derived from "Arabo kabomani", the name of the tapir in the language of the Paumari Indians. The description of the kabomani tapir is the first of a recently living tapir since 1865, when the Central American tapir was introduced.
controversy
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Internal classification of the genus Tapirus (American representatives only) according to Cozzuol et al. 2013
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The first description from 2013 included genetic analyzes taking into account almost 70 individuals of all tapir species. According to them, the Kabomani tapir is to be understood as the sister taxon of the other two South American tapirs, the lowland tapir ( Tapirus terrestris ) and the mountain tapir ( Tapirus pinchaque ). From an anatomical point of view, the only fossil documented species Tapirus rondoniensis from the Upper Pleistocene turned out to be the closest relative. The shape was described in 2011 using a 36 cm long skull find from western Brazil. Shortly after the first description by Cozzuol and colleagues, however, the establishment of a new type of tapir in the Amazon basin was viewed as critical. For example, some researchers pointed to methodological inconsistencies, since genetic studies were based on skin remains from the southwestern and northwestern Amazon region, but morphological studies were only based on findings from the assumed southwestern distribution area, which means that the data are only partially comparable. The genetic studies themselves were also criticized, as was the assessment of the anatomical features and ethnographic information from local, partly indigenous ethnic groups. In addition, the scientists pointed out that the distinction between the lowland and mountain tapirs was originally largely based on external characteristics, but that the genetic differences between the two species are very small. As a result, there would be the possibility that the latter only represents a special ecological expression ( ecomorph ) of the former, so that both types of tapir are identical, which in turn should be understood as an argument against the independence of the Kabomani tapir.
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Internal classification of the genus Tapirus (only American representatives) according to Ruiz-García et al. 2016
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Cozzuol and colleagues contradicted this, however, by emphasizing the clear differences in the skull morphology, especially the deviating shape of the crest in the kabomani tapir compared to the flatland and mountain tapir. In her opinion, the genetic tests also revealed striking differences between the individual tapir species. As a result, both the mountain tapir and the kabomani tapir are to be regarded as monophyletic , while the lowland tapir, on the other hand, could be of paraphyletic origin. The view arose from the fact that in the 2013 studies, some lowland tapirs were genetically outside the clade with the mountain tapir . This contrasts with renewed genetic studies from 2016 on more than 200 tapirs from the entire range, including around 170 individuals from South America. Due to the now larger number of individuals, according to statements by the editors around Manuel Ruiz-García, the problematic relationships disappeared. The Kabomani tapir here forms a group within the lowland tapir, which is characterized by an independent haplotype . In contrast to the results of Cozzuol and colleagues, the lowland tapir itself appears as a closed genetic unit and is clearly different from the mountain tapir. As a result, the working group around Ruiz-García only recognizes the Kabomani tapir as a special variant of the lowland tapir.
During an international conference in November 2014 organized by the Tapir Specialist Group of the IUCN , there was a critical debate on the recognition of Kabomani-tapir as a fifth Tapirart. A new strategy paper was proposed by the Tapir Specialist Group , which provides for further investigations to secure the species status of the Kabomani tapir, as well as the development of specific protective measures in the event of full recognition. The duration of this action plan is initially set to 2017, which means that the Kabomani tapir has not yet been included in the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species ; only the four long-known tapir species are currently shown there.
literature
- Mario A. Cozzuol, Camila L. Clozato, Elizete C. Holanda, Flávio HG Rodrigues, Samuel Nienow, Benoit de Thoisy, Rodrigo AF Redondo and Fabrício R. Santos: A new species of tapir from the Amazon. Journal of Mammalogy 94 (6), 2013, pp. 1331-1345 ( [5] )
swell
- ↑ Miguel Padilla, Robert C. Dowler and Craig Downer: Tapirus pinchaque (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae). Mammalian Species 42 (863), 2010; Pp. 166-182
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Mario A. Cozzuol, Camila L. Clozato, Elizete C. Holanda, Flávio HG Rodrigues, Samuel Nienow, Benoit de Thoisy, Rodrigo AF Redondo and Fabrício R. Santos: A new species of tapir from the Amazon. Journal of Mammalogy 94 (6), 2013, pp. 1331-1345
- ^ Luke T. Holbrook: The unusual development of the sagittal crest in the Brazilian tapir (Tapirus terrestris). Journal of Zoology 256, 2002, pp. 215-219
- ↑ Christelle Tougard, Thomas Delefosse, Catherine Hänni and Claudine Montgelard: Phylogenetic Relationships of the Five Extant Rhinoceros Species (Rhinocerotidae, Perissodactyla) Based on Mitochondrial Cytochrome b and 12S rRNA Genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 19, 2001, pp. 34-44
- ^ Luke T. Holbrook: Comparative osteology of early Tertiary tapiromorphs (Mammalia, Perissodactyla). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 132, 2001, pp. 1-54
- ^ Mary V. Ashley, Jane E. Norman and Larissa Stross: Phylogenetic Analysis of the Perissodactylan Family Tapiridae Using Mitochondrial Cytochrome c Oxidase (COII) Sequences. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 3 (4), 1996, pp. 315-326
- ↑ Jane E. Norman and Mary V. Ashley: Phylogenetics of Perissodactyla and Tests of the Molecular Clock. Journal of Molecular Evolution 50, 2000, pp. 11-21
- ↑ Mario Cozzuol, Samuel Nienow, Camila L. Clozato, Fabrício R. Santos, Elizete C. Holanda, Flávio HG Rodrigues, Benoit de Thoisy and Rodrigo AF Redondo: A New Species of the Largest Living South American Herbivore from Amazonia: Evidence of a Hidden Mammalian Diversity in the Neotropics. In: Tapir Specialist Group (Ed.): Fifth International Tapir Symposium Hotel Flamingo Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) October 16-21, 2011 - Symposium Program & Book of Abstracts. ( [1] )
- ↑ Elizete C. Holanda, Jorge Ferigolo and Ana Maria Ribeiro: New Tapirus species (Mammalia: Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) from the upper Pleistocene of Amazonia, Brazil. Journal of Mammalogy 92 (1), 2011, pp. 111-120
- ^ Robert S. Voss, Kristofer M. Helgen and Sharon A. Jansa: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence: a comment on Cozzuol et al. (2013). Journal of Mammalogy 95 (4), 2014, pp. 893-898
- ↑ a b Manuel Ruiz-García, Catalina Vásquez, Sergio Sandoval, Franz Kaston, Kelly Luengas-Villamil and Joseph Mark Shostell: Phylogeography and spatial structure of the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris, Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) in South America. Mitochondrial DNA 27 (4), 2016, pp. 2334-2342
- ↑ Mario A. Cozzuol, Benoit de Thoisy, Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira, Flávio HG Rodrigues and Fabrício R. Santos: How much evidence is enough evidence for a new species? Journal of Mammalogy 95 (4), 2014, pp. 899-905
- ↑ Mario A. Cozzuol, Fabrício R. dos Santos, Flávio HG Rodrigues, Ana Carolina Marinho Mota, Benoit de Thoisy and Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira: Revisiting Tapirus kabomani. In: Tapir Specialist Group (Ed.): Sixth International Tapir Symposium - Report - Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil November 16-20, 2014. P. 58 ( [2] )
- ^ Tapir Specialist Group: TSG Strategic Plan 2015-2017. In: Tapir Specialist Group (Ed.): Sixth International Tapir Symposium - Report - Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil November 16-20, 2014. pp. 59–77 ( [3] )
- ^ IUCN: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. ( [4] ); last accessed on December 22, 2014
Web links
Photos of the Kabomani tapir, taken with camera traps:
