The most complete tapir calf skeleton in Europe: the latest find in Caldes de Malavella

The most complete tapir calf skeleton in Europe, an individual that lived four million years ago, has been found at the Camp dels Ninots archaeological and paleontological site in Caldes de Malavella, as part of excavation work.

According to the City Council, the remains are largely preserved in anatomical connection and represent an exceptional scientific opportunity to deepen the knowledge of the development of these animals in the Pliocene. The discovery was made during the excavation campaign led by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution with the Centre for Research of Catalonia (IPHES-CERCA).

With this specimen, which died when it was approximately one year old, the number of tapirs recovered to date at Camp dels Ninots rises to seven, corresponding to different ages and sexes.

International benchmark

The collection is one of the most important in the world and makes this site a major international reference for the study of one of the last tapir species, Tapirus arvernensis, which inhabited Europe.

The adult specimens recovered so far indicate that they were large herbivores with robust bodies and dimensions comparable to those of current tapirs, with an anatomy similar to that of animals inhabiting the jungles of America and Southeast Asia. The presence of remains of adults, juveniles, and now also a calf allows the complete life cycle of this population to begin to be reconstructed with a very unusual level of detail.

IPHES-CERCA researcher and co-director of the excavations Bruno Gómez de Soler explained that "the recovery of such a young individual is very unusual in the fossil record". "This specimen allows us to delve into aspects practically unknown until now, such as skeletal development, growth rate, or the biology of the early life stages of Pliocene European tapirs", he pointed out.

The other co-director, Gerard Campeny, also an IPHES-CERCA researcher, pointed out that the recovery of this varied population at Camp dels Ninots is an "extraordinarily unusual" event. "We are not recovering isolated individuals, but the different life stages of the same extinct species", he added, while highlighting the value of the collection.

The excavation campaign will conclude on June 18 and involves about fifteen professionals from different disciplines such as geology, paleontology, biology, archaeology, and conservation and restoration, as well as students from the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona.

The conditions of Camp dels Ninots, an ancient volcano whose crater transformed into a lake that accumulated sediments in extraordinarily favorable conditions, allow us to determine that the tapirs found maintained a close evolutionary relationship with current ones and suggest a probable Asian origin for this lineage. Around the ancient volcanic lake, an extensive laurisilva developed, a dense and humid subtropical forest that constituted an especially favorable habitat for these large herbivores, which lived closely linked to bodies of water.

The head of the geological research at the site, Oriol Oms, explained that "the almost complete preservation and the absence of evidence of alteration by large scavengers suggest that some animals may have died suddenly around the lake, possibly due to gaseous emissions associated with volcanic activity".