The simple question of why rabbits remain so small opens a pathway to a big part of evolutionary science. Since certain species of animals only exist in small sizes, while some exist in big and small sizes, one might ask: what causes some animal species or taxonomies to have carrying sizes? Researchers from Kyoto University explored this topic in evolutionary science by studying rabbits, ungulates, and lagomorphs:
They found that once lagomorphs reach around 6 kilograms (about 14 lbs) in mass, they're at a competitive disadvantage to ungulates.
The researchers point out that there are other factors that come into play once lagomorphs become too big to operate at optimum capacity: competition from other animals from the same clade and increased danger from predators.
However, it's the ungulate comparison that seems to have had the most effect in this case. The research feeds into two contrasting ideas about how species evolve: the 'red queen' hypothesis, which ascribes most importance to species competition, and the 'court jester' hypothesis, which says abiotic forces like climate changes have the most impact.
According to the research, it seems that the red queen model is the one that's most significant here, against the backdrop of abiotic forces that aren't anything to do with animal competition.
Image via wikimedia commons
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the bigger they are, the less cute they are. thats why nature doesn't allow rabbits to get too big
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