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38-529: The lagomorphs ( / ˈ l æ ɡ ə m ɔː r f / ) are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha , of which there are two living families : the Leporidae ( rabbits and hares ) and the Ochotonidae ( pikas ). There are 110 recent species of lagomorph of which 109 are extant, including 10 genera of rabbits (42 species), 1 genus of hare (33 species) and 1 genus of pika (34 species). The name of

76-461: A cohors (plural cohortes ). Some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean "natural orders" or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognized by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification (e.g. Palmae or Labiatae ). Such names are known as descriptive family names. In the field of zoology , the Linnaean orders were used more consistently. That is,

114-509: A capital letter. For some groups of organisms, their orders may follow consistent naming schemes . Orders of plants , fungi , and algae use the suffix -ales (e.g. Dictyotales ). Orders of birds and fishes use the Latin suffix -iformes meaning 'having the form of' (e.g. Passeriformes ), but orders of mammals and invertebrates are not so consistent (e.g. Artiodactyla , Actiniaria , Primates ). For some clades covered by

152-570: A distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a higher genus ( genus summum )) was first introduced by the German botanist Augustus Quirinus Rivinus in his classification of plants that appeared in a series of treatises in the 1690s. Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature (then minerals , plants , and animals ) in his Systema Naturae (1735, 1st. Ed.). For plants, Linnaeus' orders in

190-610: A moderately fused postorbital process to the cranium , unlike other small mammals. They differ in that they have a mixture of "basal" and "derived" physical traits. Lagomorphs and rodents form the clade or grandorder Glires . Despite the evolutionary relationship between lagomorphs and rodents, the two orders have some major differences. Lagomorphs have four incisors in the upper jaw (smaller peg teeth behind larger incisors), whereas rodents only have two. They are similar to rodents in that their incisors grow continuously, thus necessitating constant chewing on fibrous food to prevent

228-683: A mutual territory. Pikas are diurnal and are active early and late in the day during hot weather. They feed on all sorts of plant material. As they do not hibernate, they make "haypiles" of dried vegetation which they collect and carry back to their homes to store for use during winter. Hares, members of genus Lepus of family Leporidae, are medium size mammals native to Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. North American jackrabbits are actually hares. Species vary in size from 40 to 70 cm (16 to 28 in) in length and have long powerful back legs, and ears up to 20 cm (8 in) in length. Although usually greyish-brown, some species turn white in

266-754: A remarkable range of habitats, from desert to tundra , forests , mountains , and swampland . Some rabbits dig burrows for shelter, the exact form of which varies between species. Other rabbits do not dig burrows but use forms, usually under a bush. Hares rarely dig shelters of any kind, instead using forms, and their bodies are more suited to fast running than to burrowing. Leporids are typically polygynandrous , and some have highly developed social systems. Their social hierarchies determine which males mate. Rabbits are induced ovulators (ovulate during mating). Species nesting below ground tend to have lower predation rates and have larger litters. The gestation period in leporids varies from around 28 to 50 days, and

304-544: A small number of young and are born after a longer gestation period. Many species of lagomorphs, particularly the rabbits and the pikas, are gregarious and live in colonies, whereas hares are generally solitary species, although many hares travel and forage in groups of two, three, or four. Many rabbits and pikas rely on their burrows as places of safety when danger threatens, but hares rely on their long legs, great speed and jinking gait to escape from predators. Order (biology) What does and does not belong to each order

342-429: A wider variety of colours. Newborn rabbits are altricial (eyes and ears closed, no fur). Although most species live in burrows, the cottontails and hispid hares have forms (nests above ground, usually under a bush). Most of the burrowing species are colonial, and feed together in small groups. Rabbits play an important part in the terrestrial food chain , eating a wide range of forbs , grasses, and herbs, and being part of

380-419: Is determined by a taxonomist , as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognized only rarely. The name of an order is usually written with

418-549: Is generally longer in the hares. This is in part because young hares (called leverets) are born precocial (eyes and ears open, fully furred), while young rabbits (called kits) are born altricial (eyes and ears closed, no fur). Higher latitudes correspond to shorter gestation periods. Leporids can have several litters a year, which can cause their population to expand dramatically in a short time when resources are plentiful. Gestation period and litter size correspond to predation rates as well. The oldest known leporid species date from

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456-667: Is good, reflecting their primarily nocturnal or crepuscular mode of living. Leporids are all roughly the same shape and fall within a small range of sizes with short tails, ranging in overall length from the 21 cm (8 in) long Tres Marias cottontail to the 76 cm (30 in) long desert hare . Female leporids are almost always larger than males, which is unusual among terrestrial mammals. Both rabbits and hares are almost exclusively herbivorous (although some Lepus species are known to eat carrion), feeding primarily on grasses and herbs, although they also eat leaves, fruit, and seeds of various kinds. Easily digestible food

494-490: Is processed in the gastrointestinal tract and expelled as regular feces. But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, leporids ferment fiber in the cecum (in the GI tract) and then expel the contents as cecotropes , which are reingested (cecotrophy). The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize the nutrients. The dental formula of leporids is: 2.0.3.3 1.0.2.3 = 28. They have adapted to

532-528: The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , several additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognized. In their 1997 classification of mammals , McKenna and Bell used two extra levels between superorder and order: grandorder and mirorder . Michael Novacek (1986) inserted them at the same position. Michael Benton (2005) inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position

570-815: The Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. When the word ordo was first consistently used for natural units of plants, in 19th-century works such as the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of Bentham & Hooker, it indicated taxa that are now given

608-429: The hispid hare . They are native to Europe, parts of Africa, Central and Southern Asia, North America and much of South America. They inhabit both grassland and arid regions. They vary in size from 20 to 50 cm (8 to 20 in) and have long, powerful hind legs, shorter forelegs and a tiny tail. The colour is some shade of brown, buff or grey and there is one black species and two striped ones. Domestic rabbits come in

646-545: The pikas , the Leporidae constitute the mammalian order Lagomorpha . Leporidae differ from pikas in that they have short, furry tails and elongated ears and hind legs. The common name "rabbit" usually applies to all genera in the family except Lepus , while members of Lepus (almost half the species) usually are called hares. Like most common names, however, the distinction does not match current taxonomy completely; jackrabbits are members of Lepus , and members of

684-406: The bottoms of their paws are entirely covered with fur, a trait they share with red pandas . Similar to the rodents, bats , and some mammalian insectivores , they have a smooth-surfaced cerebrum . Lagomorphs are unusual among terrestrial mammals in that the females are larger than males. Rabbits and hares move by jumping, pushing off with their strong hind legs and using their forelimbs to soften

722-417: The country and caused disruption to native species. Easily digestible food is processed in the gastrointestinal tract and expelled as regular feces. But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, lagomorphs ferment fiber in the cecum (in the GI tract) and then expel the contents as cecotropes , which are reingested ( cecotrophy ). The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize

760-669: The family Ochotonidae and are small mammals native to mountainous regions of western North America and Central Asia. They are mostly about 15 cm (6 in) long and have greyish-brown, silky fur, small rounded ears, and almost no tail. Their four legs are nearly equal in length. Some species live in scree , making their homes in the crevices between broken rocks, while others construct burrows in upland areas. The rock-dwelling species are typically long-lived and solitary, having one or two small litters each year contributing to stable populations. The burrowing species, in contrast, are short-lived, gregarious and have multiple large litters during

798-497: The fossil record and many more species in a single biome . This is evidence that lagomorph lineages are declining. A 2008 study suggests an Indian origin for the order, having possibly evolved in isolation when India was an island continent in the Paleocene . Lagomorphs are similar to other mammals in that they all have hair, four limbs (i.e., they are tetrapods ), and mammary glands and are endotherms . Lagomorphs possess

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836-906: The genera Pronolagus and Caprolagus sometimes are called hares. Various countries across all continents except Antarctica and Australia have indigenous species of Leporidae. Furthermore, rabbits, most significantly the European rabbit , Oryctolagus cuniculus , also have been introduced to most of Oceania and to many other islands, where they pose serious ecological and commercial threats. Leporids are small to moderately sized mammals, adapted for rapid movement. They have long hind legs, with four toes on each foot, and shorter fore legs, with five toes each. The soles of their feet are hairy, to improve grip while running, and they have strong claws on all of their toes. Leporids also have distinctive, elongated and mobile ears, and they have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are large, and their night vision

874-417: The impact on landing. Pikas lack certain skeletal modifications present in leporids , such as a highly arched skull, an upright posture of the head, strong hind limbs and pelvic girdle, and long limbs. Also, pikas have a short nasal region and entirely lack a supraorbital foramen , while leporids have prominent supraorbital foramina and nasal regions. Pikas , also known as conies, are entirely represented by

912-667: The late Eocene , by which time the family was already present in both North America and Asia. Over the course of their evolution, this group has become increasingly adapted to lives of fast running and leaping. For example, Palaeolagus , an extinct rabbit from the Oligocene of North America, had shorter hind legs than modern forms (indicating it ran rather than hopped) though it was in most other respects quite rabbit-like. Two as yet unnamed fossil finds—dated ~48 Ma (48 million yr) ago (from China ) and ~53 Ma (53 million yr) ago ( India )—while primitive, display

950-589: The late 20th century, it was generally agreed that Eurymylus , which lived in eastern Asia and dates back to the late Paleocene or early Eocene , was an ancestor of the lagomorphs. Examination of the fossil evidence in the 21st century suggested that the lagomorphs may have instead descended from mimotonids, mammals present in Asia during the Paleogene with similar body size and dental structure to early European rabbits such as Megalagus turgidus , while Eurymylus

988-429: The mother only visits and feeds the litter once a day but the young grow rapidly and are usually weaned within a month. Hare young are called leverets. Adults have a strategy to prevent predators from tracking down their litter by following the adults' scent. They approach and depart from the nesting site in a series of immense bounds, sometimes moving at right angles to their previous direction. Each litter of hares have

1026-558: The nutrients. Like rodents, they are not able to vomit. Many lagomorphs breed several times a year and produce large litters. This is particularly the case in species that live in underground, protective environments, such as burrows. The young of rabbits and pikas (called kits) are born after a short gestation period and the mother can become pregnant again almost immediately after giving birth. The mothers are able to leave these young safely and go off to feed, returning at intervals to feed them with their unusually rich milk. In some species,

1064-491: The order is derived from the Ancient Greek lagos (λαγώς, "hare") + morphē (μορφή, "form"). Other names used for this order, now considered synonymous , include: Duplicidentata (Illiger, 1811); Leporida (Averianov, 1999); Neolagomorpha (Averianov, 1999); Ochotonida (Averianov, 1999); and Palarodentia (Haeckel, 1895; Lilian, 2016). The evolutionary history of the lagomorphs is still not well understood. In

1102-708: The orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his ordinal names are still in use, e.g. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and Diptera (flies, mosquitoes, midges, and gnats). In virology , the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses 's virus classification includes fifteen taxomomic ranks to be applied for viruses , viroids and satellite nucleic acids : realm , subrealm , kingdom , subkingdom, phylum , subphylum , class, subclass, order, suborder, family, subfamily , genus, subgenus , and species. There are currently fourteen viral orders, each ending in

1140-564: The precursor of the currently used International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants . In the first international Rules of botanical nomenclature from the International Botanical Congress of 1905, the word family ( familia ) was assigned to the rank indicated by the French famille , while order ( ordo ) was reserved for a higher rank, for what in the 19th century had often been named

1178-502: The rank of family (see ordo naturalis , ' natural order '). In French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille (plural: familles ) was used as a French equivalent for this Latin ordo . This equivalence was explicitly stated in the Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle 's Lois de la nomenclature botanique (1868),

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1216-613: The staple diet of many carnivorous species. Domestic rabbits can be litter box trained, and—assuming they are given sufficient room to run and a good diet—can live long lives as house pets. Lagomorphs are widespread around the world and inhabit every continent except Antarctica. However, they are not found in most of the southern cone of South America, in the West Indies, Indonesia or Madagascar, nor on many islands. Although they are not native to Australia, humans have introduced them there and they have successfully colonized many parts of

1254-512: The suffix -virales . Leporids Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Caprolagus Pronolagus Lepus † Aztlanolagus † Nuralagus Leporidae ( / l ə ˈ p ɔː r ɪ d iː , - d aɪ / ) is the family of rabbits and hares , containing over 70 species of extant mammals in all. The Latin word Leporidae means "those that resemble lepus " (hare). Together with

1292-439: The teeth from growing too long. In addition, all lagomorph teeth grow continuously, while for most rodents, only the incisors grow continuously. Lagomorph and rodent incisors are structured differently. Lagomorphs have more cheek teeth than rodents. Both have a large diastema . Lagomorphs are almost strictly herbivorous , unlike rodents, many of which will eat both meat and vegetable matter. Lagomorphs have no paw pads; instead,

1330-406: The winter. They are solitary animals. Newborns are precocial (eyes and ears open, fully furred). Several litters are born during the year in a form (a nest above ground, usually under a bush). They are preyed upon by large mammalian carnivores and birds of prey. Rabbits, members of the Leporidae family (excluding Lepus (hares)) are generally much smaller than hares and include the rock hares and

1368-402: The year. These species tend to have large swings in population size. The gestation period of the pika is around one month long, and the newborns are altricial (eyes and ears closed, no fur). The social behaviour of the two groups also differs: the rock dwellers aggressively maintain scent-marked territories, while the burrowers live in family groups, they interact vocally with each other and defend

1406-418: Was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others. In botany , the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined. The superorder rank is commonly used, with the ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajan 's publications from 1966 onwards. The order as

1444-539: Was more closely related to rodents (although not a direct ancestor). The leporids first appeared in the late Eocene and rapidly spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere; they show a trend towards increasingly long hind limbs as the modern leaping gait developed. The pikas appeared somewhat later in the Oligocene of eastern Asia. Lagomorphs were certainly more diverse in the past than in the present, with around 75 genera and over 230 species represented in

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