Evosplaining the Perplexing Tapir

There is a critter that could be filed as, "Something the Creator made to fluster scoffers", along with creatures like the pangolin, echidna, hoatzin bird, and others. The tapir confuses many people because it has characteristics reminiscent of several animals. It also thwarts particles-to-paleontologist evolution.

Credit: Unsplash / Dušan Smetana

Using circular reasoning and the scientific principle of "It sorta kinda resembles certain things", the tapir does not conveniently fit into categories. They evosplain it through failed attempts at homology, but alleged similarities plop onto the dusty trail as science advances. Saying that "it's primitive" and "it evolved" are not satisfying, old son.

While the tapir seems to be found mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, its fossils have been found on practically every continent. Darwin's deceivers cannot provide a rational analysis of the fossils, since there are no appreciable changes. One owlhoot claimed that it did all its evolving before the Eocene, implying that it happened after the fossil record. No, it was created recently to be what it is and to do what it does so well. No ad hoc evosplaining can change reality. You savvy that, pilgrim?

A Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) that escaped from the San Diego Zoo was recaptured a few days later when the Zoo “received a call from a woman shrieking into the phone that a ‘rhinoceros’ was loose in the sewer.”

The misidentification may be understandable, given many people have never seen a tapir (pronounced like ‘appear’, or less commonly, like ‘taper’ or even ‘tarp-ear’).

Tapirs have been mistaken for hippos, pigs, anteaters, even elephants, as well as rhinos. They have been described as being a “hodge-podge” of varying animal characteristics. In Thailand, the word for tapir is p’som-sett, meaning ‘mixed scraps’, a kitchen phrase referring to the tapir looking like a blend of parts left over from the creating of other animals.

To read the rest of this interesting article, click on this link with an enormous name, "The tapir".



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