Paleo-Files: Nuralagus rex
Nuralagus rex, which was described in 2011 from fossils found on the Balearic island of Minorca, is the largest and heaviest rabbit species of all time, with a height of just over 50 cm and a weight of around 8-12 kg. This Rabbit-King of Minorca had short, splayed-out limbs, its reduced sensory receptors indicated that it had smaller eyes and ears than other rabbits and thus poor senses of sight and hearing, and its short, stiff spine resulted in low mobility for the giant rabbit and prevented it from running or jumping like other leporids. The females reached sexual maturity at 3.6 years and were larger than the males, which sexually matured at 6.2 years. Nuralagus rex was part of a host of strange animals that colonized Minorca and the other Balearic Islands during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. When the Messinian Salinity Crisis that began around 5.96 million years ago and ended with the Zanclean Flood 5.3 million years ago caused the Strait of Gibraltar to close as a result of tectonic or glacial changes, the resulting desiccation or drying-up of the Mediterranean Sea enabled a land bridge of deserts and salt flats to form between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. This witnessed an ensuing invasion of hardy animal settlers that were quick to adapt to the changing insular conditions, including a bunch of rabbits that took advantage of Minorca‘s abundant greenery and lack of predators and evolved into the Rabbit-King as a result of island gigantism. Nuralagus rex shared its habitat with the giant dormouse Muscardinus cyclopeus, the large tortoise Solitudo gymnesica, geckos, snakes, worm-lizards, alytid frogs, and lizards that were related to modern geckos and lacertids. When lower sea-levels began to connect the coasts of Majorca and Minorca at the start of the Pleistocene, the Minorcan Nuralagus rex faced competition with the Majorcan goat Myotragus and was soon driven to extinction.
