Lepus timidus

The mountain hare or arctic hare, also known as blue hare, tundra hare, variable hare, white hare, snow hare, alpine hare, and Irish hare, is a species of hare that is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats in the Palearctic realm. It is a large hare, slightly smaller than the European hare and identifiable by its tail, which is completely white throughout the year. Mountain hares have a brown coat in summer and white to grey in winter. Their diet is highly adaptive to their environment, but is generally made up of plant matter such as grass, twigs, and bark.

Lepus timidus

Евгений Егорейченков · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
mountain harePBDB
Sits inside
LepusPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Leporidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Leporidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 6 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 6 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Lepus timidus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

6 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Gnilyane — 42.80°N, 23.06°E

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The named rock units Lepus timidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lepus timidus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lepus timidus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

103 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Lepus timidus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Lepus timidus

Credit
Евгений Егорейченков
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lepus timidus · none:none

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLepus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758