Nuralagus rex
| Nuralagus rex | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Nuralagus rex after the first description. |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Nuralagus | ||||||||||||
| Quintana , Köhler & Moyà-Solà , 2011 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Nuralagus rex | ||||||||||||
| Quintana , Köhler & Moyà-Solà , 2011 | ||||||||||||
Nuralagus rex is an extinct mammal from the rabbit family(Leporidae) and so far the only known member of the genus Nuralagus . The species was scientifically described in 2011and lived in the lower Pliocene on the Balearic island of Menorca . N. rex is the largest rabbit-like ever found.
description
N. rex was an extremely large rabbit. The largest recent hare-like, the field hare , weighs a maximum of about 5 kg. With a mass of about 12 kg, N. rex was more than twice as heavy and is by far the largest rabbit-like ever found.
Compared to hares spread across the continent, N. rex had a very small and broad and flat skull in relation to the rest of the body with correspondingly small eyes and ears, relatively short hind legs, long, claw-like distal phalanges of fingers and toes, a strongly curved and less flexible one Spine and short lumbar vertebrae with horizontally oriented transverse processes. This rabbit also had extremely strong and very short ribs and probably a narrow chest, these features indicate a greatly reduced ability to take up oxygen. N. rex was evidently a sole trader .
Paleobiology and phylogenetic development
Overall, the present characteristics make it very likely that the species, unlike the continental hares, could only move slowly and was no longer able to jump. The large and strongly curved end links of the toes indicate a pronounced ability to dig.
N. rex is regarded by the first descriptors as a typical example of mammals endemic to islands . The ecological conditions for the development of these endemics were a reduced food supply and thus strong intraspecific competition with the simultaneous elimination of predation pressure on the one hand and interspecific competition on the other. These conditions led to a reduction in the motor and sensory skills no longer required for protection against predators and thus to energy savings in adaptation to the low food supply.
N. rex shows numerous similarities with the not closely related recent Ryukyu rabbit ( Pentalagus furnessi ), which lives under similar ecological conditions; the first descriptors interpret these similarities as the result of convergence .
Discovery and naming
The species was scientifically described in 2011 . The fossil bone finds of N. rex come from karst crevices between Cala Es Pous and Punta Nati in the northwest of the Balearic island of Menorca , which were discovered in the early 1990s . The generic name is made up of "Nura", the old Phoenician name for Menorca and λαγώς "lagos", the Greek name for "hare"; the specific epithet “rex” means “king” in Latin .
literature
- Josep Quintana, Meike Köhler, Salvador Moyà-Solà: Nuralagus rex, gen. Et sp. nov., an endemic insular giant rabbit from the Neogene of Minorca (Balearic Islands, Spain). In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31, 2, 2011, ISSN 0272-4634 , pp. 231-240, doi : 10.1080 / 02724634.2011.550367