Oryctolagus
Oryctolagus is a genus of lagomorph that today contains the European rabbit and its descendant, the domestic rabbit, as well as several fossil species.

Nuno Fialho · 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- Sits inside
- LeporinaePBDB
- 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 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
83 occurrences of Oryctolagus 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
83 occurrences- Miocene1%
- Pliocene11%
- Pleistocene80%
- Holocene7%
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
4 formations
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The named rock units Oryctolagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 78 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Oryctolagus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Oryctolagus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
829 taxa- Equus39 sites
- Cervus elaphus23 sites
- Bos primigenius22 sites
- Apodemus19 sites
- Mimomys19 sites
- Sus scrofa19 sites
- Lepus18 sites
- Microtus18 sites
- Stephanorhinus etruscus18 sites
- Cervus17 sites
- Dama17 sites
- Equus caballus15 sites
- Canis lupus14 sites
- Cervidae14 sites
- Aves13 sites
- Prolagus13 sites
- Stephanorhinus hemitoechus13 sites
- Eliomys12 sites
- Microtus arvalis12 sites
- Ursus12 sites
- Carnivora11 sites
- Crocuta crocuta11 sites
- Palaeoloxodon antiquus11 sites
- Testudo hermanni11 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Oryctolagus, 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
53 references- From tortoises to elephants: the impact of elephants in the broad spectrum diet at Bolomor Cave (MIS 9–5 Spain)11
- El yacimiento mesopleistoceno de Villacastin (Segovia, Espana): geologia y paleontologia de micromamiferos7
- Plio-Pleistocene fossil vertebrates of Monte Tuttavista (Orosei, Eastern Sardinia, Italy), an overview5
- Le gisement Pleistocene moyen et superieur d'Artenac (Saint-Mary, Charent): premier bilan interdisciplinaire4
- "Oryctolagus cuniculus" dans quelques gisements quaternaires francais4
- Plio-Pleistocene biogeography of Italian mainland micromammals2
- Biochronological implications of the Arvicolidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Lower Pleistocene hominid-bearing level of Trinchera Dolina 6 (TD6, Atapuerca, Spain)2
- Biochronological and palaeogeographical implications of a well-balanced late Middle Pleistocene fauna from Quisiana-Certosa (Capri, Southern Italy)2
- Les Formations continentales du Neogene superieur des vallees du Jucar et du Cabriel au ne d'Albacete (Espagne). Biostratigraphie et environment.2
- The Villafranchian mammalian faunas and biochronology of Greece1
- Une faune tres diversifee du Pleistocene inferieur de la Sierra de Quibas (province de Murcia, Espagne)1
- The Huelago-Road site1
Each of the 83 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. 41 further references are not listed. 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 Oryctolagus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Nuno Fialho
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Oryctolagus cuniculus · l-cet:021
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Oryctolagus”
- 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 itLeporinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lilljeborg 1874)