Amami rabbit

Amami rabbit
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene - present 0.03 to 0 million years ago

Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Lagomorpha
Family: Leporidae
Genus:
Lyon, 1904
Species:
P. furnessi
Binomial name
Pentalagus furnessi
(Stone, 1900)
Amami rabbit range

The Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi), also known as the Ryukyu rabbit, is a dark-furred species of rabbit which is found only on Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima, two small islands between southern Kyūshū and Okinawa in Japan. Often called a living fossil, the Amami rabbit is a living remnant of ancient rabbits that once lived on the Asian mainland, where they died out, remaining only on the two small Japanese islands where they live today.[2]

  1. ^ Yamada, F. and Smith, A.T. (2016). "Pentalagus furnessi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T16559A45180151. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T16559A45180151.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Robinson, T.; Yang, F. & Harrison, W. (2002). "Chromosome painting refines the history of genome evolution in hares and rabbits (order Lagomorpha)". Cytogenetic and Genome Research. 96 (1–4): 223–227. doi:10.1159/000063034. PMID 12438803. S2CID 19327437.