Latest Leporidae Stories
Just in time for Easter, the oldest rabbit relation is bounding onto the scientific scene. Tiny foot bones from a 53 million-year-old rabbit ancestor represent the oldest known record of hippity-hoppity mammals and their closest evolutionary relations, according to a new study. The ankle and heel bones were discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, in west-central India, and recently found by a team of paleontologists to belong to the Lagomorpha, a classification of mammals that...
One day last spring, fossil hunter and anatomy professor Kenneth Rose, Ph.D. was displaying the bones of a jackrabbit's foot as part of a seminar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine when something about the shape of the bones looked oddly familiar.That unanticipated eureka moment has led researchers at the school to the discovery of the oldest known record of rabbits. The fossil evidence in hand, found in west-central India, predates the oldest previously known rabbits by...
Latest Leporidae Reference Libraries
The tapeti (Sylvilagus brasiliensis) is a species of cottontail rabbit that can be found in Central and North America. Its other common names include the forest rabbit and the Brazilian rabbit. It is the only species in the Leporidae family found in the majority of its range. The tapeti is nocturnal and is a solitary creature. It can be seen foraging for browse and grass in forested regions, in human populated areas such as gardens and plantations, and near swamps and riverbeds. The tapeti...
The white-sided jackrabbit (Lepus callotis) has a limited range extending from northwestern and central Mexico to southern New Mexico in the United States. This rabbit is also called the Mexican Hare. There are two subspecies of the white-sided jackrabbit. It prefers a habitat at high elevations, living in open plains and on plateaus. This rabbit will not live where there are mountains or hills, and will also avoid areas where trees and shrubs are dominate. The body length of this rabbit...
The Scrub Hare (Lepus saxatilis), is a species of hare found in South Africa, parts of central Africa, and Namibia. It is found at about 3200 to 6500 feet above sea level. Its dorsal fur is gray and black, while its ventral fur is white. It has a black and white tail, while it has lighter fur around its face. Its length varies from 17.5 to 25 inches, and it weighs 3.5 to 10 pounds. Females are typically larger than males. The average mass at birth is 4 ounces. Parental care is low and...
The European Hare or brown hare (Lepus europaeus) is a species of hare native to northern, central, and Western Europe and Western Asia. It is a mammal adapted to temperate open country. It is related to the similarly appearing rabbit, which is in the same family but a different genus. It breeds on the ground rather than in a burrow and relies on speed to escape. It is larger, longer-eared, and longer-legged than a rabbit. It has a body size of 19.69 to 27.56 inches (50 to 70 cm) and a...
The mountain hare (Lepus timidus) is a hare, which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It is distributed from Scandinavia to eastern Siberia. There are isolated populations in the Alps, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and HokkaidÅ. The fur is brown in summer in preparation for winter this species sheds into a white (or largely white) wool coat. The Irish race (Lepus timidus hibernicus) stays brown all year and only rarely do individuals develop a white coat. In Scandinavia,...
