Tales of Evolution

The following is excerpted from the website of the Hare Preservation Trust.

____________________________

Hares and their relatives, the rabbits and pikas, comprise the zoological order Lagomorpha. Modern biochemical evidence suggests the lagomorphs have been a distinct lineage for around 90 million years. Since the dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago it is possible that hare-like creatures were scurrying about the feet of the giant reptiles for 25 million years.

The evolution of the lagomorphs was greatly influenced by the rise to dominance of grasses among the flowering plants during the Oligocene and Miocene periods between 35 and 5 million years ago. Vast tracts of prairie land developed in Asia during those times and the lagomorphs evolved to take advantage of this abundant food supply. The caecum, an offshoot of the gut and well developed in lagomorphs, acts as a fermentation chamber to break down the large amounts of cellulose which grasses contain.

The brown hare evolved in continental Europe, but probably did not radiate northwards before Britain was cut off from the mainland by the formation of the English Channel around 7,500 years ago. If that was so, then the mountain hare is our only native hare species. The brown hare was probably introduced by the Romans around 2,000 years ago.


Image: Darin Smith.