Leporidae

Reconstruction of Hypolagus, from here.

Belongs within: Lagomorpha.
Contains: Leporinae.

The Leporidae includes the rabbits and hares, small to medium-sized herbivorous mammals with generally elongate ears and feet. Early representatives include the Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene Hypolagus which first appeared in North America before dispersing to Eurasia and differed from more derived forms in retaining only a single anterior reentrant on the second upper premolar. The Notolagini are a North American Pliocene to Pleistocene group with a deep anterointernal reentrant on the third lower premolar (Averianov 1999).

Synapomorphies (from Averianov 1999, for crown-group excluding Hypolagus): P2 with three or more reentrants; M3 reduced, width <40% of width of M2; p3 with both posteroexternal and posterointernal reentrants present.

<==Leporidae P04
    |--Hypolagus Dice 1917 A99
    |    |--H. beremendensis (Petényi 1864) (see below for synonymy) P04
    |    |--H. brachignathus P04
    |    |--H. igrmovi Gureev 1964 P04
    |    `--H. vetus TH03
    `--+--Alilepus Dice 1931 A99
       |--Leporinae A99
       `--Notolagini A99
            |--Pronotolagus White 1991 A99
            `--+--Notolagus Wilson 1938 A99
               `--Paranotolagus Miller & Carranza-Castañeda 1982 A99

Leporidae incertae sedis:
  Panolax Cope 1874 (n. d.) A99
    `--P. sanctaefidaei Cope 1874 C77
  Aluralagus Downey 1968 A99
  Lushilagus Li 1965 SM93
  Procaprolagus Gureev 1960 SM93
    `--P. vusillus S96
  Mytonolagus Burke 1938 SM93
    |--M. petersoni P96
    `--M. robustus P96
  Tachylagus gawneae Storer 1992 S96
  Megalagus S96
    |--M. brachyodon (Matthew 1903) S96
    |--M. primitivus Dawson 1958 S96
    `--M. turgidus (Cope 1873) S96
  Chadrolagus emryi TPG96

Hypolagus beremendensis (Petényi 1864) [=Lepus beremendensis, Pliolagus beremendensis; incl. P. tothi Kretzoi 1941] P04

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A99] Averianov, A. O. 1999. Phylogeny and classification of Leporidae (Mammalia, Lagomorpha). Vestnik Zoologii 33 (1–2): 41–48.

[C77] Cope, E. D. 1877. Report upon the extinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874. Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian 4 (2): i–iv, 1–370.

[P04] Popov, V. V. 2004. Pliocene small mammals (Mammalia, Lipotyphla, Chiroptera, Lagomorpha, Rodentia) from Muselievo (north Bulgaria). Geodiversitas 26 (3): 403–491.

[P96] Prothero, D. R. 1996. Magnetic stratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Middle Eocene Uinta Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah. In: Prothero, D. R., & R. J. Emry (eds) The Terrestrial Eocene–Oligocene Transition in North America pp. 3–24. Cambridge University Press.

[S96] Storer, J. E. 1996. Eocene-Oligocene faunas of the Cypress Hills Formation, Saskatchewan. In: Prothero, D. R., & R. J. Emry (eds) The Terrestrial Eocene–Oligocene Transition in North America pp. 240–261. Cambridge University Press.

[SM93] Stucky, R. K., & M. C. McKenna. 1993. Mammalia. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 739–771. Chapman & Hall: London.

[TPG96] Tabrum, A. R., D. R. Prothero & D. Garcia. 1996. Magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Eocene-Oligocene transition, southwestern Montana. In: Prothero, D. R., & R. J. Emry (eds) The Terrestrial Eocene–Oligocene Transition in North America pp. 278–311. Cambridge University Press.

[TH03] Tedford, R. H., & C. R. Harington. 2003. An Arctic mammal fauna from the Early Pliocene of North America. Nature 425: 388–390.

Last updated: 30 January 2022.