Giant rabbit lost its hop

A giant rabbit that lost its ability to hop lived on the island of Minorca millions of years ago say palaeontologists, who have named the beast Nuralagus rex or Minorcan King of the Rabbits

The massive rabbit roamed ancient Minorca between three and five million years ago and may be one of the oldest known cases of the ‘island rule’ in mammals. The rule states that when on islands, big animals will get smaller and small animals will get bigger – likely due to reduced quantities of food or lack of mainland predators.

The rabbit was found by Dr Josep Quintana who made the serendipitous discovery when he was just 19 years old.

“I was not aware what this bone represented. I thought it was a bone of the giant Minorcan turtle!” he said.

Quintana and his colleagues from the Institut Català de Paleontolgia discovered the rabbit – who probably weighed in at around 12kg – had lost the ability to hop. The long springy spine of the mainland rabbit is lost in N. Rex and is replaced by a short, stiff spine that would make jumping difficult.

“I think N. Rex would be a rather clumsy rabbit walking,” said Quintana. “Imagine a beaver out of water.”

The researchers believe N. Rex was most likely a digger who searched for roots and tubers to eat. They think it lost its visual and hearing acuity – shown by its reduced eye socket size and reduced auditory bullae – was due to a lack of predators. The rabbit also likely had relatively small ears for its size.

N. Rex will now be examined to deduce its palaeohistology, and Quintana hopes it might even become an island mascot: “I would like to use N. Rex to lure students and visitors to Minorca.”