It has long been possible to
breed out huge rabbits and it was quite likely that on some island we would run
across a giant bunny. That is now
accomplished with the discovery of these fossils.
Obviously they failed to survive
contact with man, but it would have been surprising if they had.
Anyway, it is Easter and this is
an appropriate tale for the time
King of Rabbits: Ancient, Gigantic Bunny Discovered
Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience
Contributor
Date: 21 March 2011 Time: 03:02 PM ET
A reconstruction of Nuralagus rex in a landscape with a living European
rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus in the foreground for comparison.
CREDIT: Meike Köhler
Just in time for Easter, the skeleton of a giant rabbit has been
discovered, one that was once about six times the size of today's bunnies.
The fossils of the giant were discovered on the island
of Minorca off the coast of Spain
"I needed four years to recover a good sample of N. rex bones
because they were in very hard red stone," paleontologist Josep Quintana
at the Catalan Institute of Paleontology in Barcelona, Spain, told LiveScience.
"To pull the bones out from the matrix, it was necessary to use some
hundreds of liters of acetic acid, a very concentrated vinegar — very hard and
patient work! But it was worthwhile, of course."
When the bunny lived approximately 3 million to 5 million years ago, it
weighed about 26 pounds (12 kilograms), about six times the size of the living
European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). [Fossils
of Oldest Rabbit Relative Found]
The fact that it got so big on Minorca
seems to follow the so-called "island rule." On islands, big animals
often get smaller, due to limited food, while small animals often get bigger,
due to lack of predators.
Foot bones of Nuralagus rex, the giant rabbit whose remains were
discovered on the island
of Minorca
"For most of their over 40-million-year history, members of the
rabbit family have fit well within the size range exhibited by relatively
well-known modern members of the family. Now, discoveries on Minorca have added
a giant to the mix, a 25-pound, short-legged rabbit," said rabbit researcher
Mary Dawson at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who did
not take part in this study.
As big as it was, N. rex might have been easy prey today — it
lost the ability to hop. The long, springy spine of a typicalmodern
rabbit was lost in N. rex, replaced by a short, stiff spine that
would make leaping difficult.
"I think thatN. rex would be a rather clumsy rabbit walking —
imagine a beaver out of water," Quintana said.
The giant probably also had poor hearing and vision, with relatively
small eye sockets and internal ear parts. Its senses likely deteriorated for
the same reason it got so large — it did not have predators to worry about. As
such, it probably lacked another key trait often associated with rabbits —
long ears. The bunny likely sported relatively small ears for its size.
Based on the rabbit's curved claws, the researchers suspect the animal
was most probably a digger that lived on roots and tubers it unearthed. Its
neighbors included bats, large dormice and giant tortoises.
Quintana proposes that this newfound giant might make a good mascot for
the island. "I would like to use N. rex to lure students and
visitors to Minorca ," he said.
The scientists detailed their findings online today (March 21) in the
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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