The history of the rabbit is far more complex than its familiar image suggests, tracing a path from deep evolutionary history to its current status as a globally distributed species. Understanding where rabbits come from requires examining their ancient origins and the specific geographical events that shaped their distribution. The story involves millions of years of adaptation and a recent history of human interaction that transformed a localized species into one of the world’s most widespread mammals.
What Defines a Rabbit
Rabbits belong to the scientific order Lagomorpha, a classification distinct from the Rodentia order, which includes mice, rats, and squirrels. This distinction is based on a unique dental arrangement: lagomorphs possess four upper incisors, including a small, second pair of “peg teeth” situated directly behind the larger front pair. The presence of these small, secondary incisors is a definitive anatomical marker that separates the orders.
The digestive system also sets rabbits apart through cecotrophy, the re-ingestion of specialized soft feces produced in the cecum. This process allows them to extract maximum nutrients from the fibrous plant material they consume, an efficient adaptation for their herbivorous diet.
Within the Lagomorpha, rabbits are classified into the family Leporidae, which also includes hares. Rabbits are characterized by their altricial young, meaning the kits are born blind, hairless, and defenseless inside a burrow. This contrasts with hares, whose young are precocial, born fully furred with open eyes and mobile shortly after birth.
The Evolutionary Ancestry
The ancient lineage of all lagomorphs—rabbits, hares, and pikas—stems from a group known as Mimotonidae. The earliest ancestors appeared in East Asia during the Paleocene epoch, approximately 61 million years ago. The oldest fossil evidence of a stem lagomorph, the genus Mimotona, was found in China, confirming the Asian origin center for the order. This early diversification led to the spread of ancestral species across continents.
The modern family Leporidae, encompassing true rabbits and hares, first appeared around the late Eocene period. Leporids rapidly spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, developing the longer hind limbs associated with the modern leaping gait. While the Lagomorpha order originated in Asia, the subsequent evolution of rabbits and hares occurred across North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
The True Geographic Homeland
The species responsible for nearly all domestic rabbits and the majority of introduced wild populations globally is the European Rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus. This species is native to the Iberian Peninsula, which includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France. The geographic isolation of this region, particularly during the last Ice Age, centered its evolutionary history there.
Fossils assignable to the genus Oryctolagus first appeared during the Miocene epoch, with the oldest known fossils of Oryctolagus cuniculus appearing in southern Spain during the Middle Pleistocene. The region’s dry, Mediterranean climate and soft, sandy soil provided ideal conditions for the European Rabbit to flourish, favoring their burrowing behavior.
How Rabbits Spread Worldwide
The global distribution of the European Rabbit is a direct result of human intervention, not natural migration. This began with the Romans, who transported the animals from the Iberian Peninsula starting in the first century BC, primarily for food and fur. Medieval monasteries later continued this practice, breeding rabbits in walled enclosures called warrens, which established the rabbit in parts of Europe outside its native range.
The most dramatic expansion occurred during the Age of Exploration and colonization, when the species was deliberately introduced to new continents to provide a readily available food source. This led to the introduction of the European Rabbit to Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, and various islands starting in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Australia, a single introduction event in 1859 is genetically linked to the massive invasive population that spread across the continent.