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The fossil rabbit from Valdemino cave (Borgio Verezzi,Savona) in the context of western Europe Oryctolagini of Quaternary.
Giulia Nocchi and Benedetto Sala
Keywords: Lagomorpha; Mammals; North-western Italy; Oryctolagus; Plio-Pleistocene; Savona
 
  Abstract

    The present research deals with the remains of a lagomorph found at Valdemino cave and comes to the conclusion that it is a rabbit with peculiar characteristics in comparison with the other known species Oryctolagus laynensis, O. lacosti and 0. cuniculus. We studied other fossil remains of rabbit populations from Villafranchían and middle Pleistocene deposits and compared them with data from the literature and with recent material. The analysis leads us to maintain two phylogenetic hypotheses about the history of Oryctolagini. The ñrst one, already formulated by Lopez Martinez, suggests that 0. cuniculus derives from O. laynensis,while the origin of O. lacostí is unknown; according to the second hypothesis 0. laynensis would be the common ancestor of two phyletic lineages, 0. lacosti and 0. cuniculus. In both cases the lagomorph from Valdemino would be the form derived from 0. lacosti, from which however it differs in peculiar characteristics. Since the rabbit from Valdemino survives until the beginning of Postgalerian, its disappearance may coincide with the retreat of 0. cuniculus from western Europe in Spain and, perhaps, in south-western France, before the last glaciation. O. cuniculus survived in Spain, from where it spread once again over western Europe as a result of man.

      


  Article infos

Published in Vol. 26, Fasc. 1-4 (1997)

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Contributions à l'étude du gisement Miocène supérieur de Montredon (Hérault). Les grands mammifères. 1 - Les Lagomorphes
Nieves Lopez-Martinez
Keywords: Lagomorpha; Montredon; Prolagus; Upper Miocene
 
  Abstract

    A sample of 231 isolated teeth of lagomorphs from the upper Miocene of Montredon (southern France), identified as the ochotonid Prolagus crusafonii DOPEZ, 1975, is studied, comparing it with other populations of the same species as well as with its closest species P. oeningensis (KÖNIG, 1825).
    The maintenance dining 5 m.y. of a high morphological variability in a group of non-selected features is interpreted as an evolutionary response. This may be related with the heterogeneity and probably too with the regression of the environment. 


  Article infos

Published in Vol. 18, Ext (1988)

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Osteology of Prolagus sardus, a Quaternary Ochotonid (Mammalia, Lagomorpha).
Mary R. Dawson
Keywords: Lagomorpha; Ochotonidae; Prolagus

doi: 10.18563/pv.2.4.157-190
 
  Abstract

    Prolagus sardus is the last representative of the diverse lineages of European endemic ochotonids. It is also the most abundant in the collections. The previous studies made of this species have established rather well its dental morphology, its phylogenetic position, its geographic and temporal distribution, and its intraspecific individual variation. On the other hand, no osteologic study has fully utilized the superb material from Corsica and Sardinia  collected by Forsyth Major.
    Nearly all of the parts of the skeleton are represented in this material; they are here described and figured. Comparisons are made with Ochotona, the only surviving genus of the family, as well as with the living leporids, in particular Romerolagus, Oryctolagus and Lepus. A brief examination of the dentition reveals some particular characters of the incisors. The osteologic study allows limited interpretations to be advanced concerning the posture, mastication. locomotion and some other adaptive features of P. sardus.
    P. sardus appears as an incontestable ochotonid, but it differs from Ochotona by some characters which are found in leporids. Certain of the characters are here judged primitive for lagomorphs. The genus Ochotona therefore can no longer be considered as the image of a primitive lagomorph, because in spite of the lack of cursorial adaptations which differentiate it from leporids, it presents other specializations which are common to it alone. 


  Article infos

Published in Vol. 02, Fasc. 4 (1969)

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