In “New to Nature No 57: Nuralagus rex” (The Guardian, October 23, 2011), Quenton Wheeler tells us about the 2.5 mya “fossil of the giant rabbit of Menorca show it to be the largest lagomorph ever seen” (rabbit, hare):
The small skull of Nuralagus, which lived on Menorca, suggests dramatic decreases in hearing, sight, and motor-related abilities compared to typical rabbits. Because it had no known predators, there was no selection for detecting or outrunning them. The lagomorph, the largest ever seen, appears to have had reduced aerobic capacity and to have walked slowly rather than jumped quickly.
Given that the animal lived on a remote island (Minorca, in the Balearics in the Mediterranean), it may be analogous to the extinct (in recent memory)10-ft, flightless elephant bird of Madagascar, prey in recent history to French colonists.
This is very common in the fossil record.
Always segregated creatures on islands etc become very big or small relative to how we know them today or from the usual size in the fossil record.
Its an equation.
In indicates there is no right size. like Pygmies in Africa alongside hugh men.
The rabbits would be too big too jump and were safe and didn’t need too.
let its just natural health that let them get big.
Selection has never had much influence in biology.
Extremely Big, and Bad, Hare Day:
Bad Hare – Cartoon Image
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmw.....kBunny.jpg
Here’s the link to the article:
New to Nature No 57: Nuralagus rex – The fossil of the giant rabbit of Menorca show it to be the largest lagomorph ever seen
Excerpt: Nuralagus rex lived in the Late Neogene, which ended about 2.5m years ago, and was 10 times the size of extant rabbits, weighing an estimated average of 12 kg.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/scie.....sfeed=true
Other examples of giant fossils:
this following video, in its notes, has many more references for fossil giants about half way down the list:
Hey, rabbits have huge hind limbs and short fore-limbs. T-Rex has huge hind limbs and short fore-limbs- therefor, using evotard “logic” of comparison anatomy, rabbits and T-Rex are related.
Joseph, there could be a peer-reviewed paper in that for you.
Bio-Complexity might accept it.
Have you observed rabbits when on their hind-limbs? Have you looked at renditions of T-Rex?
Isn’t comparitive anatomy used to determine ancestral relationships?
I think the comparisons might be a little more detailed, Joe.
“Isn’t comparitive anatomy used to determine ancestral relationships?”
Yes. T. rex and rabbits are both tetrapods. We could proceed from there, bringing in more species with more details, till we had a nice phylogeny. I
Details? The theory of evolution doesn’t give a rat’s bottom about details.
Large hinds limbs and short fore-limbs- that satisfies evolutionary details.
Next I will show how T-Rex hopped after its prey…
Careful Joseph – ID doesn’t address details either, and it doesn’t appear that the current generation of ID researchers are looking for them. Without an alternative, the details are only going to be provided by the rest of science.
ID does NOT ahve the rsources your position does. But when ID does have those resources it is a safe bet that we will come up with something which would be far better than what your position has.