Stalker2
03-21-2008, 11:33 PM
Fossil of Oldest Rabbit Relative Found
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5411/easterhuzzyco3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Jeanna Bryner (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=11nsdukp6/*http://www.space.com/php/contactus/feedback.php?r=jbr)
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=10sog4vj6/*http://www.livescience.com) Fri Mar 21, 10:50 AM ET
Just in time for Easter, the oldest rabbit relation is bounding onto the scientific scene.
Tiny foot bones from a 53 million-year-old rabbit ancestor represent the oldest known record of hippity-hoppity mammals and their closest evolutionary relations, according to a new study.
The ankle and heel bones were discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, in west-central India, and recently found by a team of paleontologists to belong to the Lagomorpha, a classification of mammals that includes modern-day rabbits (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=125quo8dr/*http://www.livescience.com/animals/080214-disappearing-bunnies.html), hares and pikas (pikas are hamster-sized rabbit cousins).
"This is 35 million years older than anything that's ever been called a lagomorph on India, totally unexpected," said lead researcher Kenneth Rose, a professor in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "Undoubtedly it's a new species; undoubtedly it's a new genus; it could even be a new family."
LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080321/sc_livescience/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5411/easterhuzzyco3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Jeanna Bryner (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=11nsdukp6/*http://www.space.com/php/contactus/feedback.php?r=jbr)
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/byline/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=10sog4vj6/*http://www.livescience.com) Fri Mar 21, 10:50 AM ET
Just in time for Easter, the oldest rabbit relation is bounding onto the scientific scene.
Tiny foot bones from a 53 million-year-old rabbit ancestor represent the oldest known record of hippity-hoppity mammals and their closest evolutionary relations, according to a new study.
The ankle and heel bones were discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, in west-central India, and recently found by a team of paleontologists to belong to the Lagomorpha, a classification of mammals that includes modern-day rabbits (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/livescience/sc_livescience/storytext/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound/26803142/SIG=125quo8dr/*http://www.livescience.com/animals/080214-disappearing-bunnies.html), hares and pikas (pikas are hamster-sized rabbit cousins).
"This is 35 million years older than anything that's ever been called a lagomorph on India, totally unexpected," said lead researcher Kenneth Rose, a professor in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "Undoubtedly it's a new species; undoubtedly it's a new genus; it could even be a new family."
LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080321/sc_livescience/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound