Supersized superbunny
Fossil find reveals a giant rabbit that dug for a living
By Susan Milius
It may not be Harvey (it’s visible), but paleontologists have found fossils of a giant rabbit — the largest ever described — on the Mediterranean island of Minorca.
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Three to 5 million years ago, a rabbit species there grew about half a meter high with an estimated weight of 12 kilograms (about 26 pounds), researchers report in the March Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Six times the size of today’s wild European rabbit, the hefty extinct species outweighed not only all known rabbits, but all species in the broader group of rabbits, hares and pikas, say paleontologist Josep Quintana Cardona of Minorca and his colleagues.
The study of island fauna is interesting from a scientific point of view, Quintana Cardona says, because one can see in an especially clear way on islands how organisms adapt to the environment they live in, no matter how difficult it may be.